Posts by Lucinda Marshall

Lucinda Marshall is a feminist artist, writer and activist. She is the Founder of the Feminist Peace Network. Her work has been published in numerous publications in the U.S. and abroad including, Counterpunch, AlterNet, Dissident Voice, Off Our Backs, the Progressive, Countercurrents, Z Magazine, Common Dreams, In These Times and Information Clearinghouse. She also blogs at WIMN Online and writes a monthly column for the Louisville Eccentric Observer.

McCain Blames Feminists for Campaign's Slipping Support
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on October 21, 2008 at 7:10 AM.

As any long-time feminist knows, we are to blame for everything.  So as you might imagine, I was truly excited to read in my morning paper that John McCain is blaming attacks on Sarah Palin’s credentials on the “feminist left” as well as the liberal media.  Memo to John, just call us feminists, there is no such thing as a “feminist right” although there are some anti-abortion wingnuts who try to make you think there is.  But I digress. As a participant in the feminist movement and the liberal media, I’d like to thank the Senator for acknowleging our hard work on this issue, it is something to be proud of!

However, as Amie Newman at RH Reality Check points out, never mind the historic value of both the Clinton and Palin candidacies, women’s issues are as invisible as  ever during this campaign except for such vote losing comments as McCain’s utter contempt for the air quoted issue of maternal health.  The good news is that hey guess what, women can not only vote but also run for office because, wait for it…  feminists were instrumental in securing those rights.  Newman lists a few other notable items on the feminist agenda:

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

How Effective Is the HPV Vaccine?
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on August 26, 2008 at 2:29 PM.

When Merck and Co. introduced Gardisil, the media acknowledged that there were some concerns about the safety, effectiveness and cost of the vaccine, but the concern quickly died, and the media for the most part allowed itself to be sucked up into the excitement that finally there was a vaccine that could prevent cancer. After I wrote a piece addressing the issues mentioned above as well as Merck's lobbying and marketing blitz ("Making the HPV Vaccine Mandatory is Bad Medicine") along with several blog posts here (see below for links), I took a great deal of flak, much of it from feminist friends who wondered how I could possibly bad-mouth this pharmaceutical wonder that might save so many lives.

The answer quite bluntly had to do with looking beyond the very well-funded Merck hype and examining the facts. But beyond myself and a few others, the media did not make much effort to investigate whether the hype was justified or appropriate.

Last week however, The New York Times ran several articles by Elizabeth Rosenthal (here and here) that finally address the points that I had raised. Rosenthal writes that, according to the New England Journal of Medicine,

"Two vaccines against cervical cancer are being widely used without sufficient evidence about whether they are worth their high cost or even whether they will effectively stop women from getting the disease."

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Radical Cleric Claims "Defiant" Wives Cause Spousal Abuse
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on July 1, 2008 at 8:55 AM.

For a blogger, there is nothing that says welcome back after being on the road like finding a really good story about a major misogynist from your hometown on a seriously obscure website rather than in the morning paper where it belongs. But kudos to Ethics Daily which reports that Bruce Ware, who teaches Christian theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY delivered a sermon that he said describes his "complementarian" view of SB theology as part of a series of sermons at the Denton (TX) Bible Church on "Biblical Manhood and Womanhood." According to the article, Ware claims that:

One reason that men abuse their wives is because women rebel against their husband's God-given authority.

and that,

"(W)omen desire to have their own way instead of submitting to their husbands because of sin."

And husbands on their parts, because they're sinners, now respond to that threat to their authority either by being abusive, which is of course one of the ways men can respond when their authority is challenged, or, more commonly, to become passive, acquiescent, and simply not asserting the leadership they ought to as men in their homes and in churches,”

Now aren’t you sorry you didn’t crawl out of bed on Sunday morning to hear that spew?

Shifting the Blame in Gender-Motivated Violence
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on May 7, 2008 at 8:02 AM.

Anna Greer has a very thought-provoking piece in Wo! Magazine about the use of the passive voice in describing gender-based violence. She writes:

“One of the first things journalism students learn is to avoid the passive voice. So, you have to wonder why journalists are drawn to using passive voice when the subject of their article is male violence against women. What classically happens is that the actors in these stories are sidelined and we’re left with the women who get raped, sexually harassed, or beaten.”

“A recent story in the Sydney Morning Herald was a perfect example of passive voice subverting the object/subject relationship. ‘Don’t Want to Be Harassed? Stop Acting Like a Man’ read the headline. The article reported on a Canadian study which found that, in the workplace, men were more likely to sexually harass women who didn’t conform to traditional gender roles. In the process, it used passive voice to shift blame from the perpetrators of sexual harassment and placed it squarely on the shoulders of the victims.”

“The use of passive voice in articles such as this, subconsciously shapes the way people view violence against women. It is an insidious and unquestioned practice. In the passive voice version of the above story, men apparently don’t harass and intimidate women, women just run around getting themselves harassed. If active voice had been used, would the same conclusions be drawn? Would it have the same headline? No.”

“This is not merely an isolated incident or slip of the sub-editor’s metaphorical knife. It is a wide-spread practice - in news articles on the subject of rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment and domestic violence - to have the perpetrators painted out of the picture, either partly or completely.

Positioning a male abuser as the actor in a news article on sexual assault isn’t accusing all men of being abusers, just as identifying women as victims doesn’t imply that all women have suffered from sexual harassment or intimidation in the workplace. But let’s be real here. Men are the overwhelming majority of perpetrators of violence against women — as they are the overwhelming majority of perpetrators of violence against men, for that matter. And using the passive voice in articles on gendered violence positions female victims as somehow the root of the problem. It shifts the responsibility and blame from the actor to the person on the receiving end of the abuse.”

“When women are identified as the victims of gender-motivated violence and intimidation, the perpetrators must be identified as the actors. The use of passive voice cloaks this reality. Let’s place the blame where it belongs — squarely on the shoulders of the abusers.”

Kudos to Greer for totally nailing it. We cannot hope to end gendered violence until we accurately report and name what is happening and like UK activist Jennifer Drew, Greer is absolutely right that we have to place the blame on the perpetrators, not the victims.

It’s About Time–Influential Women That Time Forgot
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on May 6, 2008 at 5:00 PM.

Well here it is, the opening salvo of the “It’s About Time” list of influential women that Time should have included in their list of 100 influential leaders. We need more names! Let’s make it clear that far more than 25% of the influential people on this planet happen to be women. By perpetuating the diminishing of women’s leadership and influence, Time deprives us of valuable insights and contributes to the toxic perception that the lives and work of women is less important than the contributions of men.

1. Barbara Brenner–Breast Cancer Action

2. Jennifer Drew–English activist working to highlight misogynist media portrayals of sexual assault.

3. Cathy Webster–1000 Grandmothers

4. Geena Davis

5. Leuren Moret and Helen Caldicott for raising awareness about the dangers of nuclear power and depleted uranium

6. Lilly Ledbetter

7. Amma

8. Alice Walker

9. Pema Chodron—Buddhist Monk, author

10. Kara Walker–artist

11. Jane Roberts–co-founder of 34 Million Friends of UNFPA

12. Yanar Mohammed–Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq

13. Medea Benjamin–Code Pink

14. Doris ‘Granny D’ Haddock

15. The women’s organizations in Okinanwa that are speaking out against the handling of sexual assaults committed by US military personnel

16. The Myannmar nuns and other women who marched with the monks but got almost no notice

17. Cynthia McKinney–presumptive nominee for president of the Green Party

18. Riane Eisler

19. Frances Moore Lappe

20. Malalai Joya

21. Wangari Maathai

22. Helen Thomas

23. Amy Goodman

24. Starhawk

25. My mother, your mother, and all the women who teach in classrooms everywhere–if they aren’t influential, somebody needs to explain to me the definition of that word!

And it isn’t just Time that needs to see this list. Echidne reports that the UK Telegraph just pulled the same stunt with it’s list of top 10 important people who all happen to be male and white.

The Silencing of Tracy Barker
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on May 5, 2008 at 10:01 AM.

Heart over at Women’s Space has an excellent, comprehensive report on Tracy Barker another Halliburton/KBR employee who experienced hrorendous sexual harassment and assault while working in Iraq. The blog takes a hard look not only at the facts of the case but also why it has received relatively little attention compared to the case of Jamie Leigh Jones,

“I don’t know why Jamie Leigh Jones, who spent only four days in Iraq, has received the amount of publicity and support she’s received, compared with Barker who spent over a year there in both Baghdad and Basra. I can’t help but wonder whether it is because, as Barker was told, “Gang rape sells, not sexual assault or ‘just’ rape.” I wonder whether it might be, in part, because Barker is French Basque/Spanish and is hence a woman of color, therefore not the kind of complainant the blonde American Jamie Leigh Jones is, or because Jones’s father was the kind of man who could gain the immediate attention of a Republican legislator with a quick phone call, securing his daughter’s release within three days of the attacks on her. I wonder if it might be, in part, because Barker is a mother of five, instead of a young woman in her 20s with no children. I wonder whether it was because Barker saw too much, knew too much, including about the attacks of Halliburton employees on Iraqi women as well as Halliburton employees. I wonder if, despite Mokhtare’s own admissions, Barker going to his room – even though as part of her job, it was up to her to address the problem he said he had with his air conditioner — made her claims less interesting or credible somehow. I suspect, in part, it might be because at times, Barker has seemed to castigate and blame herself, to express guilt and remorse for being unable in her drugged exhaustion to fight Craig Grabein off when he raped her, in the way, women often blame ourselves, as though it is up to us to keep men from raping us, instead of up to men to stop raping women.

Whatever the reason, the silencing of Tracy Barker is an outrage. Her story must be heard, and she must receive justice. To that end, I have written this post. Please, spread the word.”

Kudos to Heart for putting all of this together and asking the necessary questions.

Dyncorp Used Armored Car To Transport Prostitutes in Iraq
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on April 30, 2008 at 8:06 AM.

Wow–I know I sure feel safer knowing that my tax dollars were used to transport prostitutes rather than protect someone on a dangerous mission (albeit that I probably would be quite opposed to whatever the mission was, but that’s another topic):

“Some explosive testimony this afternoon from a panel of whistleblowers testifying before the Senate’s Democratic Policy Committee on contractor abuse in Iraq.

A contractor died when a DynCorp manager used an employee’s armored car to transport prostitutes, according to Barry Halley, a Worldwide Network Services employee working under a DynCorp subcontract.

“DynCorp’s site manager was involved in bringing prostitutes into hotels operated by DynCorp. A co-worker unrelated to the ring was killed when he was traveling in an unsecure car and shot performing a high-risk mission. I believe that my co-worker could have survived if he had been riding in an armored car. At the time, the armored car that he would otherwise have been riding in was being used by the contractor’s manager to transport prostitutes from Kuwait to Baghdad.“”

And we ask, as we have so many times before: In what way does this make us safer?

Hillary Keeps Funds from Firm Accused of "a Brazen Pattern of Sexual Harassment" and "Sexual Assaults"
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on March 1, 2008 at 10:10 AM.

I guess this is what we can expect of someone who once served on the board of Walmart:

"Sen. Hillary Clinton has declined to return $170,000 in campaign contributions from individuals at a company accused of widespread sexual harassment, and whose CEO is a disbarred lawyer with a criminal record, federal campaign records show.

"This is by far, hands down, the worst case I've ever experienced," said Diane Smason, one of the EEOC lawyers handling the lawsuit. "Every woman there experienced sex harassment, they were part of a hostile work environment of sex harassment. And this occurred from the top down."

Sen. Clinton's spokesman, Howard Wolfson, told NBC News in a statement that the senator decided to keep the funds because the lawsuit is "ongoing" and because none of the sexual harassment allegations has been proven in court."

The sad thing is, as Kavita Nandini Ramdas points out in The Nation, throughout this entire campaign, the welfare of women has been off the table as a topic of discussion,

"There is something profoundly wrong when a conversation about qualifications to be President of the most powerful nation in the world ignores the reality facing most of that world's inhabitants. While American pundits debate whether Clinton is being targeted unfairly, for example, thousands of women and children in Gaza are being collectively punished as Israel, a neighboring state and former occupying power, withholds food, fuel and electricity. Yet who is talking about that? In the face of such a travesty of human rights and international law, not one of the presidential candidates, regardless of race or gender, has the gumption to speak out and say this is wrong. Not one has said that he or she will not tolerate such behavior by any ally of the United States.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Iraq War Vet Accused of Raping a Three Month Old Baby
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on February 20, 2008 at 8:18 AM.

This gruesome report from Jackson, Michigan serves as a reminder that the sexual violence and the blatant disregard for the lives of civilians, particularly women and children, that is an inevitable part of militarism does not end when soldiers leave the battlefield:

"A former Army paratrooper who served two tours of duty in Iraq has been ordered tried on charges of raping and critically injuring a 3-month-old girl.

Kirk Coleman is charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and first-degree child abuse, charges that carry up to life in prison.The girl sustained brain damage and 17 broken bones and is undergoing therapy. District Judge R. Darryl Mazur ruled Tuesday there's enough evidence to warrant a trial.

Coleman allegedly told investigators he blacked out after drinking heavily and taking pain killers and awoke to find the injured baby in her crib."

Unfortunately, as reports from the Democratic Republic of Congo indicate, we are likely to see more of these cases as soldiers come back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

This Just In: T-Shirts Don't Cause Rape
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on February 16, 2008 at 8:33 AM.

No doubt about it, that is a headline I never thought I'd write, but thanks to Aussie MP Bob Such, apparently we need to clarify a few facts.

"Independent MP Bob Such has also accused the women who wear them of demeaning their sex.

The South Australian pollie and former Speaker of the SA Parliament yesterday said some clothing could lead to men losing respect for women.

"I am not one to say that it in any way justifies a sexual assault, because it does not, but I see women getting around in T-shirts saying 'Give me a few more drinks and I will do this or that' and displaying comments drawing attention to their breasts and so on," he said.

"People may say these are flippant comments but they do not help in trying to impress on young men a respect for women. Some of these women do not help, they actually demean women overall."

During his speech Mr Such also questioned how someone could be charged with rape if consent was withdrawn "part way through intercourse".

"I am aware in Western Australia men have been convicted of rape on the basis that they were part way through sexual intercourse and did not stop.

"I am interested in the Attorney's justification for that. I think that the everday person - male or female, and I have spoken to men and women about this - finds it hard to understand how, if intercourse is underway someone can say "stop the world I want you to get off" and how that is really a reasonable action that could result in someone being charged with rape.""

When I first saw the above, all I could do was sputter incoherently, so I asked UK activist Jennifer Drew if she would like to offer a response and she kindly obliged with this excellent response:

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

1.5 Million Afghani Widows, Illiterate, Earning $16/Month and Often Forced to Prostitute Themselves
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on February 14, 2008 at 6:35 AM.

The following report from IRIN tells the ghastly truth of what it is like for women in the aftermath of decades of militarism in Afghanistan:

"There over 1.5 million widows out of an estimated 26.6 million people in Afghanistan, according to Beyond 9/11, a US-based nonprofit group that provides direct financial support to Afghan widows and their children. Some 50,000-70,000 widows live in Kabul alone, it says.

The government of Afghanistan does not have an accurate figure for the number of widows in the country, but some officials say there are more than 1.5 million.

Most widows illiterate

"The average age of an Afghan widow is just 35 years, and 94 percent of them are unable to read and write," Deborah Zalesne, a board member of the Beyond 9/11 and a law professor at the City University of New York, told IRIN.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

America Can't Fight Terrorism By Sexually Terrorizing Women and Girls: Two Military Rapes Revealed
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on February 11, 2008 at 5:41 AM.

Two items this morning regarding members of the U.S. military's fine efforts to fight terrorism by terrorizing women and girls. Middle-school age girls. This first case in particular bears watching-why do I have an uneasy feeling that he is more likely to be convicted of the stealing and being AWOL than the assaulting?

"An Air Force colonel is accused of rape, forcing himself on or sexually harassing two other women, stealing about $10,000 and other crimes -- all while he was a training commander at Sheppard Air Force Base.

The indecent assault charges stem from allegations that Lofton kissed two women against their will and forced them to touch him -- including the woman he is accused of raping in April. The unbecoming conduct charges stem from allegations that Lofton made lewd comments and tried to form a relationship with another woman at the base, according to documents."

And then there is this fine example from Okinawa of the U.S. military's ongoing efforts to be good citizens in Japan:

"A U.S. Marine was arrested on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old Japanese girl on the southern island of Okinawa, police said on Monday, triggering anger from an area where the U.S. military presence is widely resented.A spokesman for the Okinawa Prefecture police said 38-year-old Tyrone Hadnott, based at Camp Courtney on the island, was suspected of raping the schoolgirl when the two were in a car on Sunday. Further details were under investigation, he added."

Yes we know, no one has been convicted yet, but with the military's sorry record for prosecuting these cases, they bear watching. We need to insist that they be properly investigated and if true, that the crimes be punished appropriately, not by administrative action.

Sexual Assault Is a Crime, Not a Labor Dispute, Unless of Course You Work for Halliburton/KBR [VIDEO]
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on February 7, 2008 at 11:02 AM.

The notion that sexual assault cannot be tried as a criminal matter but has to be arbitrated in secret arbitration and treated as a labor dispute is simply beyond belief. But then again, defending democracy by making a mockery of it is what Halliburton/KBR is all about:

"A mother of five who says she was sexually harassed and assaulted while working for Halliburton/KBR in Iraq is headed for a secretive arbitration process rather than being able to present her case in open court.

A judge in Texas has ruled that Tracy Barker's case will be heard in arbitration, according to the terms of her initial employment contract.

Barker says that while in Iraq she was constantly propositioned by her superior, threatened and isolated after she reported an incident of sexual assault."

But it is what the judge in the case said that is most disturbing:

"District Judge Gray Miller, however, wrote in his order that "whether it is wise to send this type of claim to arbitration is not a question for this court to decide.""

"Sadly," wrote Judge Miller, "sexual harassment, up to and including sexual assault, is a reality in today's workplace."

And this in what way would have any bearing on it being a criminal offense? But wait for it...

It gets worse:

"Barker's case had also involved a claim of sexual assault against a State Department employee. Those claims have been severed from her case against Halliburton/KBR and transferred to the Eastern District of Virginia."

Yes, you read that correctly, if a Halliburton/KBR goon commits sexual assault they are not subject to the same criminal proceedings as the same charges brought against a State Department employee.

So there you have it-we are officially fighting terrorism and defending freedom by paying private companies exhorbitant amounts of money and allowing them to terrorize our own citizens and deny them their civil liberties. And it's all legal. Talk about a classic case of the best democracy money can buy.

Editor's Note: The video to your right aired on 20/20 this past December and it features Barker and another victim of rape by Halliburton emplopyees, Jamie Leigh Jones, telling their horrifying stories.

Saudis Arrest, Strip Search Woman for Having a Business Meeting With a Man
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on February 5, 2008 at 3:17 PM.

Doesn't it give you a warm fuzzy feeling that these misogynist thugs are our allies?

"A businesswoman was detained and strip-searched by Saudi Arabia's religious police for sitting in a Starbucks coffee shop with an unrelated man, taboo in the country.

The English-language Arab News today quoted a 40-year-old financial consultant, named only as Yara, as saying she was arrested by members of the powerful Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

She said she was holding a business meeting with the man in a branch of Starbucks in Riyadh, in a section reserved for families.

Yara said she was taken to a Riyadh prison, strip-searched and forced to sign a confession to having been caught alone with a unrelated man - an illegal act in the kingdom which enforces a strict Islamic moral code.

"I had no other choice" but to sign, said the married mother of three.

"I was scared for my life ... I was afraid that they would abuse me or do something to me."

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

West Point Cadet Charged with Rape, Continues with Regular Duties
Posted by Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network on February 4, 2008 at 7:09 AM.

Well thank goodness the military is getting tough on rape.

WEST POINT, N.Y. - A U.S. Military Academy cadet is facing a rape charge.

Orry R. Jones, of Columbus, Texas, was charged this week with failure to obey a general order, making a false official statement and rape, each a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Cadets are subject to military law.

According to the military academy, the charges concern alleged sexual activity in the cadet barracks in August.

Jones, a member of the class of 2009, remains at the academy performing his regular duties. A military officer at West Point will conduct a pretrial investigation and make a recommendation to a senior officer on whether to dispose of the case or proceed to a court-martial.

So just wondering, are female cadets not citizens of this country worth protecting from being terrorized while they are training to defend our country from terrorism?