Nice guy kills girlfriend

I see nothing much has changed while I was away.

The latest case in the national news involves Jovan Belcher, a linebacker with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Police report shows new details in Jovan-Belcher murder suicide

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/police-report-shows-details-jovan-belcher-murder-suicide-152440857–nfl.html

So, the reason for this fatal domestic violence incident, according to this article:

• couple had been arguing for months
• he was angry she was out late
• she reportedly did not talk to him as he thought she should

Honestly, I can’t recall seeing “arguing” as a cause of domestic violence, have you? Or the manner in which a person speaks to another.

He’s painted with a lot of sympathy in this article – he only “reportedly” partied (in quotation marks in the article); he says he’s sorry to his girlfriend (sorry for killing her); his mother and coach are involved; he tells the coach how he wants his children to be taken care of (do killers have that right?)

The victim, on the otherhand, is a mother who went to a concert, had a few drinks, argued with her boyfriend, and spoke in a manner he didn’t like.

Hmmm.

 

Gender Ethical Journalism

This looks like a great resource from Who Makes the News:

http://www.whomakesthenews.org/

 

 

Women journalists and security

 

Women journalists in the eye of the storm

“Threats and violence against women journalists are on the rise in many regions of the world. In their work exposing injustices and bearing witness to human rights violations, women journalists are women human rights defenders and as such are in need of better security and protection mechanisms.”

Journalist Security Guide

Honey, I killed the kids

This guy, who has JOINT CUSTODY, kills his 3 young daughters and then calls the ex to let her know:

Slaying of 3 River Falls Girls Stokes Community Fears of Domestic Violence

Schaffhausen and his ex-wife had joint custody of the girls, and on the day of the killings, he contacted her to ask whether he could see the children, who were being watched by a baby sitter. Jessica Schaffhausen agreed, the criminal complaint states.

Less than two hours after the sitter left the girls at the home with Schaffhausen, he called Jessica Schaffhausen and said, “You can come home now because I killed the kids,” according to the complaint.

She called police, who then found the girls dead from cuts to the neck. The youngest girl also had been strangled. Schaffhausen soon after turned himself in to police.

On Friday, Wojcik said crimes such as the River Falls killings are less about violence than they are about power and control.

“He didn’t just murder them, he then called her to say (what he had done),” she said. “It’s a final act of trying to control that person and inflict the most harm they can on them.”

 

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again:  How many of these stories do we have to read before these family court judges get a clue? Joint custody is for mild to moderate conflict, which are NOT typically the cases you see in family court. It’s just re-traumatizing to keep reading these cases. The media has to do its job, too, and provide some context. This is a pattern and deserves the media’s attention.

What’s new in stereotyping?

Seems like an odd question to ask, but actually a report just came out called “Stereotyping Update.” Check it out – it’s not just about gender, it also includes race and ethnicity. Scroll down to the video section and look at the YouTube video made by African men who don’t like their stereotype of being violence-loving, non-smiling men who only speak in short sentences. It’s great to be able to get a point across while being humble and funny. There’s a blog on Stereotype Updates you can subscribe to, as well. I did.

Stereotyping Update

 video

The EVA awards on reporting violence against women

Entries for 2012 are now closed, but I find this interesting enough to post. For one, isn’t this awesome to have awards on reporting violence against women (VAW)? And for another, the site has a 2-page document with advice on reporting VAW. Some of it is familiar – not blaming the victim, not excusing the perpetrator, etc. By the way, the organization is in Australia.

EVA awards

Read the reporting guidelines here.

European Parliament looking at sexualization of girls

From European Women’s Lobby:

The EWL is deeply concerned with the increasing sexualisation of young girls in media today. The problem of sexualisation refers to the imposing of adult sexuality on children, especially girls, at an age when they are mentally, physically and emotionally not ready. Further, it gives young girls the belief that they are valued on their physical attractiveness leading to an objectification of women. The issue of sexualisation can be seen everywhere today, in advertisement, computer games, movies, magazines, music, fashion, cell phones…

The problem has been acknowledged by the European Parliament. For this reason, a meeting was held regarding the sexualisation of young girls on 06 June 2012 in the Parliament aiming to raise awareness of the issue among public authorities and develop concrete strategies to combat it. This meeting was organised by MEP Joanna Skrzydlewska, author of the upcoming report, as well as the the EPP Group of which she is a member. Experts from all over Europe were invited to share their observations and experiences regarding the sexualisation of girls.

Sexualisation has become like a wall paper, all the time constantly in the background, to the extent that we do not even see it anymore as Dr. Linda Papadopoulos described it. Dr. Papadopoulos is a psychologist and an expert on the subject of the effects of sexualisation on young people. She presents statistics concerning the issue as well as concrete examples:

• When asked about future profession, 62 % of young girls wanted to be a glamour models and 25 % want to be a lap dancers.
• The playboy bunny is a logo on writing pads for young girls today.
• There is a computer game where you score points for beating up a prostitute. This game was given 10 out of 10 in several reviews and the NY-times said it gave “a new level of depth for an interactive entertainment experience.”
• Violence has been made into something sexy in media.
• 1 out of 3 teenagers have experienced sexual violence from their boyfriends.
• 11 years old is the average age of being exposed to porn.
• 10 year olds are being sexually harassed in school.

Study Finds Men Called On As Experts on Women’s Issues

I noticed this on an episode of the Today Show. The panel included 2 men and 1 woman. The topic? Do women want to see females depicting violence in the media? I thought then, why the hell do you have 2 men on the panel? It’s absurd yet it happens all the time. Can’t we speak for ourselves?

(Ironically, this article is written by a male!)

Men Dominate Discussion of Women’s Issues in Media: Study

When it comes to abortion, men were quoted 81 percent of the time. Women were quoted just 12 percent of the time. Birth control? A 75-19 gap. Planned Parenthood? 67-26. The findings are even more damning when we consider the fact that all three issues took a turn dominating the political discourse during the period of the study.

Silenced Gender Gap in Election Coverage

Collective blogging for Dr. Tiller

Blog in memory of Dr. Tiller until June 7th – make sure to link to the Abortion Gang’s site. Here’s the 1st question:

How can the pro-choice and reproductive justice movements better support the people who have later abortions and providers who perform them?

It’s my understanding that teens tend to have later abortions because they’re so frightened and anxious about the pregnancy they take longer to come to a decision.  The other group is women with medical complications. Of course, the anti-choicers would have us believe an evil woman doesn’t want the “inconvenience” of a pregnancy – as if anyone would call being pregnant convenient or not. The decision to raise a baby to the age of 18 has nothing to do with convenience. You need maturity, financial means, child care, proper lodging, etc.

Abortion Gang

Your post can directly answer this question, or use it as a jumping off point to talk about other issues, such as:

• Why is it so difficult for our movement to talk about and support later abortions?
• Reflecting on Dr. Tiller’s famous quote: ”Make no mistake, this battle is about self-determination by women of the direction and course of their lives and their family’s lives. Abortion is about women’s hopes and dreams. Abortion is a matter of survival for women.”

In your post, please link back to this blog post so that folks can come here and find links to other reflections on Dr. Tiller.

Representing Aging Women in the Media

New Dynamics of Ageing

Report -

Representing Self-Representing Ageing
Look at Me! Images of Women & Ageing

Key Findings
Women in their 50s–60s felt more pressure from media and advertising imagery compared with participants in their 80–90s.
Eighty-eight per cent of visitors to the project exhibitions wanted to see more images of older women, like those created through the
project, displayed in public.

Participants captured various experiences from continued public involvement, friendships and fun to fears of increasing limitations and invisibility. Images challenged stereotypes such as the ‘grumpy old woman’ and reflected rarely represented grief and loss.
Participants wanted to see more images of ‘ordinary’ older women who were still ‘making a contribution’.

Images produced by participants showed that women experience ageing at the site of the body, for example in the form of wrinkles and
greying hair. Participatory visual methods gave women a sense of solidarity and ownership of the research process, impacting on well-being and a feeling of public validation.

Look at Me!

The New Dynamics of Ageing Project was launched in Sheffield in October 2009. The research project, based at the Department of Sociological Studies at The University of Sheffield, aims to harness the power of the creative arts to transform the way society views older women.

The research team are in the process of running a series of creative, group workshops to explore how women are represented in the media (newspapers, television, magazines) and society as they grow older. The workshops are investigating the messages these images give out and how they affect women´s well-being. The workshop facilitators will then work with participants using photographic, art therapy, and video techniques to create new and alternative images of women and ageing. To date, “ordinary” older women have not had the opportunity to either comment on, or create, their own images of ageing. This project aims to use a variety of visual methods to enable older women in Sheffield to represent their own experiences of ageing.