Posts by Tana Ganeva

When Men Murder Women: New Report Details Homicide Rates
Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet on September 29, 2008 at 6:13 PM.

The Violence Policy Center has just released a horrifying report detailing the rate of female homicides perpetrated by men in 2006 (the most recent year data was available). The study, based on Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) data submitted to the FBI, analyzes incidences of murder involving one female victim and one male perpetrator. The data is broken down by state, race and ethnicity, murder weapon, relationship between the victim and offender, and the circumstances leading up to the murder.

The report's key findings:

• For homicides in which the victim to offender relationship could be identified, 92 percent of female victims (1,572 out of 1,701) were murdered by someone they knew.
• More than 12 times as many females were murdered by a male they knew (1,572 victims) than were killed by male strangers (129 victims).
• For victims who knew their offenders, 60 percent (949) of female homicide victims were wives or intimate acquaintances of their killers.
• There were 309 women shot and killed by either their husband or intimate acquaintance during the course of an argument.
• Nationwide, more female homicides were committed with firearms (54 percent) than with any other weapon. Knives and other cutting instruments accounted for 20 percent of all female murders, bodily force 12 percent, and murder by blunt object seven percent. Of the homicides committed with firearms, 73 percent were committed with handguns.
• In 88 percent of all incidents where the circumstances could be determined, homicides were not related to the commission of any other felony, such as rape or robbery.

An analysis of the rate of homicide by race found that black women were murdered at 3 times the rate of white women. The circumstances leading up to black female homicide largely mirrored that of all female homicides:

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Rachel Maddow Sees 'Palin Effect' for What it Is: Bullsh*t
Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet on September 20, 2008 at 3:00 AM.

On her show last night Rachel Maddow took an uncommon approach to the issue of women voters in the 2008 election. Instead of hysterically ranting about crazed 'Hillraisers', or condescendingly pontificating about the confused, female multitudes so awestruck by Palin's vagina they would vote against their own interests, Maddow looked at some actual polls.

Based on the numbers, Maddow concluded that the "Palin effect" -- the idea that Palin's addition to the Republican ticket was a stroke of genius that would pull women, en masse, away from Democrats -- is " ... an interesting storyline ... If by interesting, you mean not at all true."

Maddow found that picking Palin did not make McCain more popular with female voters. In fact, "Obama leads McCain by 16 points among women." Among white women, Palin's addition to the ticket has resulted in a drop in support for McCain, with Obama leading by 2 points.

Concluded Maddow, in faux disbelief: "Might it be that women care less about a candidate's gender, and more about a candidate's position on the issues?"

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Baked Alaska: Palin Installed a Tanning Bed in the Governor's Mansion
Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet on September 16, 2008 at 12:12 PM.

It seems Sarah Palin achieved her healthy, orange glow not by wrestling moose in the great Alaskan outdoors, but under the buzzing blue lights of a tanning bed.

Narco News, tipped off by a reader, found that shortly after moving into the Governor's Mansion, Palin had a personal tanning bed put in. As Al Giordano and Bill Conroy write:

The Republican nominee for vice president, Governor Sarah Palin, it turns out, is a pioneer of the Great Indoors:

"The governor did have a tanning bed put in the Governor's Mansion," Roger Wetherell, chief communications officer of Alaska's Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, confirmed to this newspaper. "It was done shortly after she took office [in early 2007] and moved into the mansion."

The home tanning bed in the Governor's Mansion in Juneau adds a trivial fact among the many, big and small, coming to light about the right-wing's latest celebrity, McCain's gamble to try and wrestle the election away from Democrat Barack Obama, but one that -- tug the thread -- leads to other questions about elitism, ethics, public health and the insufferable phoniness that plagues politics and politicians.

It's true. For one thing, unless the tanning bed was powered by Huskies on electronic treadmills, it probably used up tons of energy. And having our political candidates crisped is probably not the best use of energy right now (or ever).

Then there's the fact that Palin's running mate suffers from skin cancer -- a disease usually caused by sun exposure, tanning beds, and more generally our cultural obsession with tanning.

On the bright(!) side, this story should help burnish(!) Palin's reputation as a blue-collar 'everywoman'. I hear that all throughout America's heartland, people have so many tanning beds they use some of them for firewood.

Did Palin Have an Affair?
Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet on September 8, 2008 at 12:31 PM.

Republicans are having a hissy fit over a National Enquirer story that alleges Sarah Palin had an affair with her husband's business partner. The story, slated for September 15th publication, says that Todd Palin found out about the affair and ended his relationship with his business associate, Scott Alan Richter. At the Atlantic, blogger Andrew Sullivan also recently uncovered proof that Richter filed a motion to get his divorce papers sealed.

The McCain campaign is trying to kill the story, accusing "the media" of unfairly attacking Palin and threatening to sue the Enquirer if they go ahead with coverage of the alleged affair.

McCain adviser Steve Schmidt: "The efforts of the media and tabloids to destroy this fine and accomplished public servant are a disgrace. The American people will reject it."

Continued Schmidt:

Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin look forward to discussing the issues that Americans care about, fixing broken government, creating jobs, making our country energy independent and securing the peace for the next generation by bringing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to a victorious end.

Hmmm. Remember when the Enquirer broke the story about the Edwards affair, and Republicans stood politely on the sidelines refusing to engage in baseless smears until it was absolutely clear the story was true? Recall how they respectfully backed off from attacks on Edwards and his family, fearing it would distract from the issues?

No? Me neither, because that's the opposite of what happened.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Fight Back Against Police Brutality at the RNC
Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet on September 3, 2008 at 2:49 AM.

On Monday several journalists covering the RNC protests, including Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, and two of her producers, were violently manhandled by Minneapolis police and arrested on bogus charges.

The problem with using excessive force to illegally arrest members of the press, though, is that they have things like cameras and radio shows and popular websites with which to publicize assaults on their rights. While the mainstream media have ignored the story, it has exploded in the progressive press.

Help push the story further into the public eye and make officials accountable by signing this Free Press letter demanding that "press intimidation cease immediately and that all charges be dropped."

By signing the letter:

... you're sending a powerful message: Officials must rein in aggressive and violent tactics by local law enforcement, stop the targeting of journalists and immediately drop all charges against them.

The letter will be sent to St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner, St. Paul City Attorney John Choi, and the Host Committee of the Republican National Convention.

Click here to show your support for press freedom. Free Press needs 10,000 signatures in the next 24 hours, so sign now.

The PTC Thinks TV Will Turn Your Kids Into Sex Freaks
Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet on August 8, 2008 at 4:57 PM.

Bad news for all those parents out there who were kinda counting on TV to raise their kids for them: Parents Television Council -- the conservative watchdog group most notable for inundating the FCC with complaints about curse words and boobs -- has just released a study that finds prime-time television "actively" denigrates marriage while glorifying sex outside of it. Even worse, according to the report, is the television depiction of "outre sexual expression" such as " ... masturbation, pornography, sex toys, and kinky and fetishistic behaviors."

The snappily titled "Happily Never After: How Hollywood Favors Adultery and Promiscuity Over Marital Intimacy on Prime Time Broadcast Television" contains such alarming news as:

• Across the broadcast networks, references to adultery outnumbered references to marital sex 2:1.
• Although the networks shied away from talking about sex in the context of marriage, they did not shy away from discussions of masturbation, oral sex, anal sex, manual stimulation, sex toys, bondage or kinky or fetishistic sex -- there were 74 such references during the study period.
• Visual references to voyeurism (a third party present, watching or taping while sex takes place), transvestites/transexuals, threesomes, kinky sex, bondage and sadomasochism, and prostitution outnumbered visual reference to sex in marriage by a ratio of 2:7:1.

Based on these and similar findings the report concludes that today's prime time television:

... seems to be actively seeking to undermine marriage by painting it in a negative light ... sex in the context of marriage is either non-existent on prime-time television, or is depicted as burdensome rather than as an expression of love and commitment. By contrast, extra-marital or adulterous sexual relationships are depicted with greater frequency and overwhelmingly, as a positive experience.

Furthermore:

Behaviors that were once seen as fringe, immoral or socially destructive have been given the imprimatuer of acceptability by the television industry -- and children are absorbing those messages and judging from a recent survey, imitating that behavior.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Gay-Marriage Opponents Are Deeply Concerned About Your Children
Posted by Tana Ganeva on July 26, 2008 at 6:27 AM.

Apparently, supporters of Proposition 8 -- a measure on California's November ballot that would overturn the recent court decision legalizing gay marriage -- aren't trying to impose a retrograde belief system on the rest of us. Nor is it their intention to cement discrimination against gays and lesbians into law. Nothing like that.

No, what they're trying to do is protect your children from being viciously shorn of their innocence by activist judges bent on forcing gay marriage down everyone's throat -- even the state's kindergarteners.

According to an article in the SF Gate, the proposition's backers claim that if the measure fails, teachers will be required to advocate for same-sex marriage as early as kindergarten:

"Yes on 8 campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Kerns said Thursday that the court decision would make instruction on same-sex marriage mandatory under a state law that requires public schools to offer comprehensive health education programs from kindergarten through high school.

[ ... ]

" ... In the ballot arguments, Prop. 8 supporters declared, "We should not accept a court decision that results in public schools teaching our kids that gay marriage is okay. That is an issue for parents to discuss with their children according to their values and beliefs. It shouldn't be forced on us against our will."

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Heavy Petting: PETA Compares Teen Girls to Unneutered Animals
Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet on July 18, 2008 at 3:31 PM.

PETA has always caught flak for its publicity campaigns, which often seem to elevate the wellbeing of animals above the wellbeing of women. In the eighties the organization got tons of media attention by flinging blood at women in fur coats; they also earned criticisms from feminist groups for not dishing out the same treatment to men wearing leather. More recently PETA has earned the ire of feminists for using pornographic images of women to push their agenda as well as for their recurrent and ever-tasteful campaigns comparing women to livestock.

The animal rights group is certain to grab headlines with their new ad, which calls attention to the importance of neutering pets by parodying the parental sex talk. The ad opens with a surly teen girl sighing loudly as her parents plant themselves on her bed wearing "We need to talk about sex" expressions.

Mom: Honey, we need to talk ...

Dad: ... about sex. We think you should be having it sweetie.

Mom: A lot of it.

Dad: Get out there and nail everything you can!

[ ... ]

Teen girl: What if I get pregnant?"

Dad: So what? You should pop out all the kids you want! We can leave them in the shelter, dump them out in the street ... it's really not important.

The ad closes with, "Parents shouldn't act this way. Neither should people with dogs and cats."

The ad is really well-made and funny; it also does a great job skewering our weird, schizophrenic discomfort with teen sexuality. Another plus is that at no point is the girl entrapped, naked, in a cage, a la previous PETA efforts to shed light on animal cruelty. All in all it is not as offensive as it could be: way to go PETA, for putting out an ad that doesn't involve the symbolic slaughter of women.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

House to Hold First-Ever Hearing on Transgender Rights
Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet on June 25, 2008 at 3:00 PM.

On Thursday the House will hold the first-ever Congressional hearing on transgender rights. Introduced by Congressman Rob Andrews, D-NJ, the hearing will examine discrimination faced by transgender people in the workplace.

Andrews' home state of New Jersey offers some workplace protections for transgender people: a law passed in 2006 prohibits discrimination based on "gender identity or expression" in employment, housing and public accommodations. But New Jersey is one of only 13 states (and the District of Columbia) with policies banning discrimination based on gender identity. Most other states have protections that only extend to gays, lesbians and bisexuals; gender identity is not included.

Past efforts to secure protections on the federal level for transgender people have not panned out. In 2007, Representatives Barney Frank (D-Mass), Chris Shays (R-Conn.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), and Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) introduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), designed to provide protections to LGBT people similar to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, the version of the bill that was finally passed excluded language protecting transgender people from workplace discrimination.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Study Links Nighttime Light to Breast Cancer
Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet on February 26, 2008 at 3:42 PM.

According to a recent article in the Washington Post, a new breast cancer study has revealed a correlation between levels of exposure to light in the nighttime and rates of breast cancer. Scientists mapped satellite imagery of nighttime light distribution onto cancer registries and found that geographic areas with an average amount of nighttime illumination show up to 37 higher rates of breast cancer than communities with the lowest light.

Scientists hypothesize that light may lower levels of melatonin, a tumor-suppressing hormone produced by the brain at night.

Many breast-cancer researchers have suspected for years that there is a link between exposure to light in the nighttime and breast cancer. Past studies have demonstrated that rats sleeping in lit up cages have higher cancer rates than rats allowed to sleep in darkness. Also, women who work night shifts have been shown to have a 60 percent above normal risk of breast cancer. These findings have led the World Health Organization to classify night shift work as a probable carcinogen.

This study controlled for other factors that can affect health, including ethnicity and wealth. However, it did not measure indoor lighting or the types of light bulbs being used -- a factor that can affect melatonin levels.

Does Wearing High Heels Improve a Woman's Sex Life?
Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet on February 21, 2008 at 3:24 PM.

A study by scientists at the University of Verona found that wearing high heels tones muscles and may even improve a woman's sex life. Urologist Maria Cerruto monitored electrical activity in the pelvises of female test subjects and found that high heels strengthen pelvic muscles, increasing their ability to contract during sex.

It's pretty great when "science" tells me that something that requires minimal effort and that I already do is healthy. I can't wait for the study that finds that pizza and cheap beer, when ingested together, metabolize into vitamin C.

However, the problem with studies like these is that they generate a lot of poorly researched media hype. No doubt, there are probably a thousand other studies out there that unequivocally "prove" that wearing high heels strains your musculature, grinds your bones into dust, and permanently numbs your genitals.

But those won't be as widely disseminated in the media because they don't have to do with sex, or conjure up the creepy yet vaguely salacious image of female test subjects clomping around in high heels with wires rigged to their pelvises.