July 29, 2024

OMFG!!! Talk about misogynist, sexist garbage! I was watching some clips

from different things on youtube, and scrolling down to see what else was available. To my utter disgust, I saw the image for some asshole named kyle kulinski (sp). In the corner of the still image of his. . .whatever it is. . .was what was supposed to be a bumper sticker that sort of read, "Harris 2024". Only the "h" wss an appallingly vulgar image of her and how she supposedly got ahead.

I know there is no bottom, no limit to their ugliness and hatred, but that one image was jarring, to say the least. I am guessing it won't bother them in the least that kids might see it. . the same kids they are supposedly "protecting" from exposure to sexualization.

July 27, 2024

Violence against women, girls at 'epidemic' levels: UK police

Violence against women, girls at ‘epidemic’ levels: UK police

Such violence accounted for 20 percent of all reported crime in England and Wales from 2022 to 2023, report says.

Women hold signs during a protest at Westminster Bridge, following the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard, in London, Britain March 15, 2021. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

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More than 3,000 violent crimes against women and girls take place each day in England and Wales [File: Hannah McKay/Reuters]
Published On 23 Jul 202423 Jul 2024

Women and girls in the United Kingdom are suffering “epidemic” levels of violent crime, police warn, with a new report documenting more than 1 million such offences within a year.The report, released on Tuesday by the UK’s National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing, found that violence against women and girls made up about 20 percent of all reported crime in England and Wales from 2022 to 2023. It said one in every six murders in England and Wales during the period was related to domestic abuse .Based on the data, at least one in every 12 women will be a victim each year of gender-based violent crimes, including rape, stalking, harassment and online sexual abuse, according to the report.The number is likely to be higher due to unreported crimes, Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth said.

‘National emergency’

Blyth said the data were “staggering” and growing in scale and complexity every year with violent crimes targeting girls and women increasing 37 percent from 2018 to 2022. Child sexual abuse and exploitation jumped by 435 percent from 2013 to 2022, the report estimated – from incidents climbing from just over 20,000 to nearly 107,000. “Violence against women and girls is a national emergency,” Blyth said in a statement. “We need to move forward as a society to make change and no longer accept violence against women and girls as inevitable.”

Britain’s government last year classified violence against women and girls as a national threat to public safety, and police forces were told to prioritise their response to the issue in the same way as they do “terrorism” and organised crime. The report said thousands of police officers were newly trained to investigate rape and other sexual offences in the past year. But the scale of the violence is so enormous that law enforcement alone cannot address it, the report said. One in 20 people are estimated to be perpetrators of violence against women and girls per year, with the actual number thought to be significantly higher. The report cited early data showing a 25 percent increase in the number of arrests from 2019 to 2022.

But Blyth said this response was not enough and called for more government support to tackle a criminal justice system that is “overwhelmed and under-performing for victims”. “Our focus will always be to bring the men behind these pervasive crimes to justice,” she said. “By enhancing the way we use data and intelligence, we will improve our ability to identify, intercept and arrest those causing the most harm in communities.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/23/violence-against-women-girls-at-epidemic-levels-uk-police

July 27, 2024

The Kamala Harris I Know, and What It Could Mean for America

The Kamala Harris I Know, and What It Could Mean for America
PUBLISHED 7/23/2024 by A’shanti Gholar

I know what it is like to live at a time when our leaders haven’t looked like me. Having a woman of color at the top of the presidential ticket is historic.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at Westover High School in Fayetteville, N.C., on, July 18, 2024. (Cornell Watson / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

On Sunday, President Biden did what he has always done: Put our country first. His decision to withdraw from the presidential race and immediately endorse Vice President Kamala Harris sends the message that America is ready for a woman of color in the Oval Office. Kamala Harris is no stranger to leadership or firsts. Over two decades ago, she co-founded Emerge, the nation’s largest network of Democratic women elected officials and candidates that I have the honor of leading today. In those two decades, Kamala Harris has gone from being the first Black and South Asian woman to serve as San Francisco district attorney, to the first Black and South Asian woman to serve as vice president of the United States. Now, she’s earned enough delegate support to become a presidential nominee—another first for a woman of color—and could become the first woman president of the United States. The significance of this moment cannot be overstated.

I know what it is like to live at a time when our leaders haven’t looked like me. They haven’t shared in my experiences. They haven’t known my fight. But I also know this is changing … faster than ever. As a young Black girl growing up in Nevada, one who preferred to watch C-SPAN over Sesame Street, I didn’t see people who looked like me in politics. A Harris presidency would mean a lifetime of young girls and women knowing that the highest office in the land is within their reach. Elections are always about who voters think will most improve their lives, and so the next 100 days will offer voters a clear choice. But elections are ultimately about the future—and reveal who America wants to be.

As the leader of an organization dedicated to electing women at all levels of government, I know that voters are not only ready for a woman to lead, but they are hungry to end the divisive nature of our politics and for the leadership women in office bring. They support the vice president’s work on lowering the cost of prescription drugs, investing in our infrastructure, and creating jobs and an economy that works for the middle class, not just the 1 percent.

. . . .

At Emerge, we elect women of the New American Majority: Black, Brown and Indigenous women and women of color, as well as young, LGBTQ+ and unmarried women—a growing force in American politics. And it is happening. Nevada is the first state in the country to have a majority-woman legislature, because of Emerge alums. Across the way in Michigan, Emerge helped flip the House of Representatives in 2022, and now Democrats control both chambers of the Michigan legislature for the first time since 2008. And we have done the same in Colorado, Maine, New Mexico, Virginia and other states. But the work doesn’t stop once women are in office. Our alums are fighting for reproductive rights—see state Sen. Eva Burch in Arizona. They’re battling in tough races—see Susie Greenberg in Georgia. And they’re trailblazing in each new role they step into—see Speaker Joanna McClinton in Pennsylvania. For every caregiver with a daughter, every girl with a dream and every American who has hopes for the future, the upcoming election represents who we are, where we want to go, and who we want to be.

https://msmagazine.com/2024/07/23/kamala-harris-first-woman-president-usa/

July 27, 2024

The 'Electability' Question: Don't Fall for Sexist, Racist Clickbait

The ‘Electability’ Question: Don’t Fall for Sexist, Racist Clickbait
PUBLISHED 7/23/2024 by Jennifer Weiss-Wolf

Questioning the electability of a candidate who has made a career of supporting women’s lives and fundamental rights in an election largely defined by these issues is irresponsible journalism.

Vice President Kamala Harris on the South Lawn of the White House on July 22, 2024. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)

Vice President Kamala Harris has won the necessary support to secure her place at the top of the Democratic ticket. An immediate parade of headlines followed: Is America Ready to Elect a Woman? Can a Black Woman Win? Why are powerful women so damn unlikeable? Wait, don’t answer. It is a sexist, racist trap. Refuse to fall for the clickbait. On the right, the attacks on Harris are predictable, with Trump promising to “Willie Horton” her as presidential candidate, as reported by The Bulwark.

In JD Vance as Trump’s vice presidential pick, a new twist to the caricature has emerged: Harris as a “childless cat lady,” “miserable” with her life and with no direct stake in the future of the country. Never mind the irony of Vance zeroing in on reproductive tropes, a rich twist for the party that knows all too well its role in decimating abortion access is its Achilles heel, with zero mentions of it at last week’s convention.
As for Harris, a staunch supporter of reproductive rights, this of course is a massive electoral edge. Poll after poll shows that the majority of Americans disapprove of the Dobbs decision, support abortion and turn out to vote on the issue. Which is why the persistent doomsday handwringing and headlining from the mainstream news media is doubly frustrating. Posing women’s leadership writ large as an open and unanswered question—and questioning the electability of a candidate who has made a career of supporting women’s lives and fundamental rights in an election largely defined by these issues—is nothing short of irresponsible journalism.

Women’s Leadership Around the World

First, let’s be clear: Women lead politics around the world every single day. According to U.N. Women, there are 27 countries that have a woman serving as head of state and/or government. Latin American countries have had women in executive office since the 1970s; last month, Claudia Sheinbaum was elected president of Mexico by a sweeping majority after beating the other leading (female) candidate. In the U.S., more than 30 percent of elected state-level executives are women, totaling 99, of whom nearly a quarter are women of color. Women serve as governor in 12 states; Michigan has a trifecta of women at the helm in the roles of governor, attorney general and secretary of state. Twelve states each also have women in the roles of attorney general and secretary of state.

. . ...

https://twitter.com/i/status/1815558077401223531

. . .

Gratefully, The Nation’s Elie Mystal offered just the antidote needed in “Beware The People Who Claim ‘America Isn’t Ready for a Black Woman President’”:

“I don’t know, or care, if America is ‘ready’ to have a Black woman president right now, because America has more than enough time to get itself ready. If you’re not already there, I suggest you download some kind of app ‘What to Expect While Expecting a Black Woman President’ or something. But this is what we’re doing now.”

Simply stated, Black women are electable if we elect them. Period. There’s your headline.

https://msmagazine.com/2024/07/24/kamala-harris-indian-women/

July 27, 2024

What Kamala Harris Means to Me as a Young Indian American Woman

What Kamala Harris Means to Me as a Young Indian American Woman
PUBLISHED 7/24/2024 by Anoushka Chander

It is a new and exciting feeling to see myself in a presidential candidate.

Residents hold placards as they gather to watch then-Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris’ inauguration at her ancestral village of Thulasendrapuram, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on Jan. 20, 2021. (Arun Sankar / AFP via Getty Images)

It’s Indian girl summer.

On Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris officially secured the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination for president, making history as the first Black American woman and first Indian American woman to be a presumptive presidential nominee. Harris is no stranger to being the “first,” and with every barrier she breaks, she ensures more women, people of color and women of color like me will follow.
Growing up in Vice President Harris’ home state of California as a young Indian American woman, Kamala Harris fills me with pride and hope for myself and other young brown girls like me.

I’ve followed VP Harris since her days in the U.S. Senate, watching her grill Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Bill Barr. As a teen lobbyist for gun violence prevention, voting rights and racial justice in Congress, I often passed her Senate office and smiled at the posters celebrating Dreamers and the Transgender Pride flag. Most recently, I have followed her work to address the maternal mortality crisis and cheered on her fiery speeches fighting for women’s reproductive freedom in a time of increasing attacks on bodily autonomy that disproportionately affect women of color. These are the issues that young people, and particularly young women of color, will be voting on in November.

I’m an Indian American woman, so Vice President Harris’ campaign is personal to me. She speaks often of how her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, courageously left India to study at U.C. Berkeley at age 19. At Berkeley, Gopalan met VP Harris’ father, Donald Harris, as they were both involved in civil rights advocacy and part of a group that discussed African American history and literature. Harris says her mother experienced discrimination because of her accent. Despite this, Shyamala raised Harris and her sister, Maya Harris, to believe in themselves and stand up for others. My own grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from India in the 1970s and experienced the difficulties that many immigrant families face as the first generation to come to this country. My maternal grandmother helped sponsor her siblings to join her in America while building a new life, completing her residency to become a pediatrician and starting a family. I am proud that an Indian American woman who celebrates her immigrant heritage is at the top of a major party ticket.

. . .

As a student at Harvard College, I run a national conference for Future Leaders in Public Service, where hundreds of service-minded young people come to learn to be changemakers in their communities. Many of our students are young women of color, young brown and Black girls, who are fired up to make change.

https://msmagazine.com/2024/07/24/kamala-harris-indian-women/

July 27, 2024

Kamala Harris and the Legacy of Black Women's Leadership

(a somewhat lengthy, very important read)

Kamala Harris and the Legacy of Black Women’s Leadership
PUBLISHED 7/25/2024 by Janell Hobson

“You have a right to vote, but you also have a right to leadership after that vote,” said feminist scholar Carole Boyce Davies of Harris’ ascension to the top of the ticket. “We have to be ready to see the new reality, and then to move with it.”

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris arrives for an event honoring National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship teams from the 2023-2024 season, on the South Lawn of the White House on July 22, 2024. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)

Within hours of the stunning decision by President Joe Biden to end his re-election campaign—and to follow this announcement with his subsequent endorsement of his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, as his successor—the organization #WinWithBlackWomen stepped into action. After the group circulated a Zoom call, approximately 44,000 Black women gathered and raised over $1 million in three hours. Their counterpart, #WinWithBlackMen, followed suit, and the next night, a gathering of over 45,000 Black men matched these funds. The vice president now has one of the largest and fastest fundraising donations for a presidential candidate. Now, other groups are creating similar calls: “Latinas for Harris,” “South Asian Women for Harris” and “White Women for Harris.”

Such actions demonstrate how Black women’s leadership is unmatched. They were more than ready for this moment, as is the woman they have rallied around this election season. Vice President Harris has already shattered barriers as the first Black woman attorney general of the state of California, the second Black woman U.S. senator and the first woman and African American vice president of the United States. Her progressive politics—which includes co-authoring legislation such as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and championing reproductive rights and maternal health in her role as vice president—also offer us a glimpse into what her presidency might highlight around racial justice and women’s rights issues.

She is ready. We are ready. The world is ready. After all, Black women have a long history of effective leadership.
Carole Boyce Davies was the Frank H. T. Rhodes professor of humane letters and professor of Africana studies and literatures in English at Cornell University before becoming Chair of the English Department at Howard University.

Ms. contributing editor Janell Hobson spoke with Black feminist scholar Carole Boyce Davies, who has authored several books on Black women’s politics, most recently Black Women’s Rights: Leadership and the Circularities of Power, which explores Black women’s roles as transformational leaders in the highest political positions and on the grassroots community levels. Feeling the optimism of the moment and the energy of a fired-up political base, this conversation reflects on the legacy, meanings and promises of Kamala Harris’ presidential run.

. . .

Black Women’s Rights: Leadership and the Circularities of Power presents Black women as alternative and transformative leaders in the highest political positions and at grassroots community levels.

U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm of Brooklyn announces her entry for Democratic nomination for the presidency, at the Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn, on Jan. 25, 1972. (Don Hogan Charles / New York Times Co. / Getty Images)

. . . .

Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados at the ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies and USA 2024 final match between South Africa and India on June 29, 2024, in Bridgetown, Barbados. (Gareth Copley / Getty Images)

. . .

Hobson: And “lifting as we climb,” to invoke Black club women.

Boyce Davies: We are crossing all the boundaries. This is a good moment, and I’m happy to be in it

https://msmagazine.com/2024/07/25/kamala-harris-black-women-politics-history/

July 27, 2024

Kamala Harris and the Legacy of Black Women's Leadership

(a somewhat lengthy, very important read)

Kamala Harris and the Legacy of Black Women’s Leadership
PUBLISHED 7/25/2024 by Janell Hobson

“You have a right to vote, but you also have a right to leadership after that vote,” said feminist scholar Carole Boyce Davies of Harris’ ascension to the top of the ticket. “We have to be ready to see the new reality, and then to move with it.”

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris arrives for an event honoring National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship teams from the 2023-2024 season, on the South Lawn of the White House on July 22, 2024. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)

Within hours of the stunning decision by President Joe Biden to end his re-election campaign—and to follow this announcement with his subsequent endorsement of his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, as his successor—the organization #WinWithBlackWomen stepped into action. After the group circulated a Zoom call, approximately 44,000 Black women gathered and raised over $1 million in three hours. Their counterpart, #WinWithBlackMen, followed suit, and the next night, a gathering of over 45,000 Black men matched these funds. The vice president now has one of the largest and fastest fundraising donations for a presidential candidate. Now, other groups are creating similar calls: “Latinas for Harris,” “South Asian Women for Harris” and “White Women for Harris.”

Such actions demonstrate how Black women’s leadership is unmatched. They were more than ready for this moment, as is the woman they have rallied around this election season. Vice President Harris has already shattered barriers as the first Black woman attorney general of the state of California, the second Black woman U.S. senator and the first woman and African American vice president of the United States. Her progressive politics—which includes co-authoring legislation such as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and championing reproductive rights and maternal health in her role as vice president—also offer us a glimpse into what her presidency might highlight around racial justice and women’s rights issues.

She is ready. We are ready. The world is ready. After all, Black women have a long history of effective leadership.
Carole Boyce Davies was the Frank H. T. Rhodes professor of humane letters and professor of Africana studies and literatures in English at Cornell University before becoming Chair of the English Department at Howard University.

Ms. contributing editor Janell Hobson spoke with Black feminist scholar Carole Boyce Davies, who has authored several books on Black women’s politics, most recently Black Women’s Rights: Leadership and the Circularities of Power, which explores Black women’s roles as transformational leaders in the highest political positions and on the grassroots community levels. Feeling the optimism of the moment and the energy of a fired-up political base, this conversation reflects on the legacy, meanings and promises of Kamala Harris’ presidential run.

. . .

Black Women’s Rights: Leadership and the Circularities of Power presents Black women as alternative and transformative leaders in the highest political positions and at grassroots community levels.

U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm of Brooklyn announces her entry for Democratic nomination for the presidency, at the Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn, on Jan. 25, 1972. (Don Hogan Charles / New York Times Co. / Getty Images)

. . . .

Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados at the ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies and USA 2024 final match between South Africa and India on June 29, 2024, in Bridgetown, Barbados. (Gareth Copley / Getty Images)

. . .

Hobson: And “lifting as we climb,” to invoke Black club women.

Boyce Davies: We are crossing all the boundaries. This is a good moment, and I’m happy to be in it

https://msmagazine.com/2024/07/25/kamala-harris-black-women-politics-history/

July 27, 2024

Kamala Harris Is Older, Wiser ... and Cooler

(some really great images at the link below!)

Kamala Harris Is Older, Wiser … and Cooler
PUBLISHED 7/26/2024 by Jennifer Weiss-Wolf and Sharon Malone

Harris has achieved what might have seemed impossible: She has changed the perception of what it looks and sounds like to be an “older” woman.Kamala Harris has rapidly assumed the mantel of cool, youthful candidate. Among Gen Z voters, she is “brat” as decreed by Charli XCX, with pop culture legends like Olivia Rodrigo and Beyoncé lining up fast for the cause. Among the older crowd, longstanding debate over whether the vice president qualifies as a Baby Boomer—born in 1964, she is just on the cusp—rages on. It is apparently a hill Gen X is prepared to die on, citing her penchant for Chuck Taylors as proof. All of which is to say that at nearly 60 years old, Harris has achieved what might have seemed impossible before this moment: She has changed the perception of what it looks and sounds like to be an exceptionally vibrant and eminently capable “older” woman.

The two of us write regularly about menopause as a matter of personal health and public policy. We know quite well what happens when ageism, sexism and racism collide—and focus our work on countering the resulting biases that permeate society, whether that be in the practice of medicine, the distribution of dollars for scientific research or political gamesmanship itself. Not surprisingly, cartoonish tropes surfaced quickly when Harris entered the race—claims like those of JD Vance, who said that older women are akin to “childless cat ladies,” “miserable” and with no direct stake in the future of the country. The public’s pushback has been swift, reinforcing Harris’ status as an authentically joyful warrior. With every new and resurfaced clip that makes the rounds—of Harris dancing down hallways, marching in parades and sharing humane interactions with her spouse, with President Biden, with the people of this country—we see a woman who radiates from the certainty of age and of knowing herself. Quite frankly, it is a gorgeous sight.

. . . .

If menopause no longer means women hiding their true selves or pretending to be a younger version of themselves, what does portend for all of us? Beyond the benefits that come with the hard-earned credibility and respect we deserve, it can herald a new future for public policy and pop culture. Already we’ve seen a surge in commitment to investing federal funding in research about women’s midlife health, including a national task force led by First Lady Jill Biden and four bipartisan federal bills recently introduced in the U.S. Senate and House. We reap the benefits from new companies and consumer brands that focus explicitly on ensuring essential access to menopause care and treatments. We get to revel in media that celebrates aging bodies and brains, like the continued dominance of 42-year-old Beyoncé herself and the award-winning Wiser Than Me podcast hosted by another veep, Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Beyond the need to be seen and heard, it is also about flexing our clout. A 1992 New York Times opinion piece entitled “Mighty Menopause” posited that the then-unprecedented rise of Baby Boomer women in politics was a direct result of hormonal shifts—and the “biological changes wrought by menopause” ultimately serve to bolster women’s “interest in power and increase their ability to use it.” We love to see it. And are here to declare that what’s old is new—in every way.

https://msmagazine.com/2024/07/26/kamala-harris-age-older-women-menopause-baby-boomer-gen-x/