Amongst The Anti-Choice Flamewar, An Oasis Of Sense

If, like me, the usually idiotic rhetoric of anti-choicers/pro-”life” protests is like a red rag to a bull to you, then you probably don’t want to waste your time reading the Readers’ Comments in reaction to the news that Premier Brumby is pleased the abortion law reforms have been passed.

However, amongst the ill-informed and sensationalistic sturm und drang (Murder! Babies being chopped into bits! Imagine if Brumby himself had been aborted!), I was struck by the clarity of this comment, from reader “Stephen of Sydney”:

As someone who was supposed to be aborted in Melbourne back in 1962, when abortion was still illegal, I am extremely glad that less people will have to suffer the fate that I did. That is, of being born contrary to my mother’s determined wishes that I should never be born. It always amazes me that anti-choice advocates rarely talk about the fact that there are indeed much ‘worse’ things than aborting an unwanted foetus. That includes, of course, forcing a child to be born into abject abuse and neglect. The trauma from that experience will afflict me for the rest of my life. At last, however, with this new legislation, humanity finally prevails.

In a perfect world, his comment would be the voice of reason that would make the anti-choicers see the light, but we don’t live in that world, so for now, let’s just be thankful that Victoria’s Parliament has kicked a massive goal for reproductive rights and women’s freedom of choice.

Victorian MPs Vote In Favour Of Abortion Legalisation

This “just in”, from The Age:

Abortions are set to be legal in Victoria after the upper house supported a controversial bill allowing terminations.

MPs voted 23 to 17 in favour of the bill after an exhaustive and emotional debate, with Brumby Government Minister Theo Theophanous and Treasurer John Lenders voting against the bill.

The result of the vote was initially greeted with silence but two pro-life activists were removed from the gallery for shouting abuse at MPs.

“There is blood on your hands,” one screamed.

“There will be retribution in this country,” another yelled.

The upper house will now consider amendments to the legislation.

“Retribution”? Nice.

It will be very interesting to see just what those amendments turn out to be, but either way, this is a big step forward for Victorian women’s reproductive rights.

Sarah Haskins: Everybody Poops. Except For Women.

Hey, guess what? Sarah Haskins still rules!

For some reason I can’t get this video to stop auto-playing (good work on your Firefox 3 compatibility, VodPod/WordPress), so hop over the jump for Target: Women’s latest, Number Twos…

Don’t Worry, It’s Not Our Britt, Just Some Other Chick

Was discussing the Britt Lapthorne case with the wondrous Audrey this morning, specifically the latest developments: police in Dubrovnik have found a female body floating in the sea near the town, but they are denying it is Lapthorne, who has been missing since mid-September:

Her father, Dale Lapthorne, said a detective from the capital Zagreb, known only as Antonio and who has been liaising with the family and local police on the case, refuted the newspaper report.

“He said they’re wrong, the details are wrong,” Mr Lapthorne said. “He’s advised it’s not correct.”

While my heart goes out to the Lapthorne family during what must be a terrible ordeal, what is most unsettling about the coverage is the sense that so long as this woman’s body isn’t Britt’s, it’s somehow “okay”.

But what happened to her? Was she beaten, raped, murdered? Did she drown whilst on her morning swim? Did she slip and fall from a bridge? Did someone throw her body into the sea like garbage? Does she have children? A partner? Are people looking for her, too?

Too often media coverage in cases like this is skewed towards women who are white and ‘respectable’; as soon as the victim (or, more often than not, victims) no longer fit that bill – be they black, indigenous (witness Canada’s ‘Highway Of Tears‘, upon which 17 of the 18 women murdered were Native American), immigrant or from a lower socio-economic background, sex worker, single mother or any other minority – it seems people just don’t care as much.

She Kissed Me And It Felt Like A Hit

For some time now I’ve been meaning to discuss Katy Perry’s I Kissed A Girl, but find the song (and its reprehensible predecessor, Ur So Gay – I hope Hilary Duff pays Perry a visit) but I find her songs so odious I haven’t been able to bring myself to get into the zone, so to speak. To listen to UR So Gay – and this is speaking as a long-term defender of pop music – is to experience the joy drain from your life like Mosquitor sucking the life-force out of He-Man, only less entertaining. (On that note, you can have a schadenfreudetastic read of this interview with Perry, conducted by TheNewGay, in which she attempts to argue that lyrics like “I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf” are, like, not meant to be insulting to gay men.)

Back to the topic of I Kissed A Girl, though – and fortunately, SameSame founder Tim Duggan has spurred me on with his opinion piece, “The dangers of fauxmosexuality“, in today’s Sydney Morning Herald:

In interviews, Perry implies it’s just all a bit of fun. But when up to 30 per cent of teen suicides in the US are by lesbian or gay teens, it’s very a dangerous game for celebrities to play.

The gay equality movement has gradually, thankfully, started to take hold across the world. And then along comes a simple, straight singer with dollars in her eyes who takes us back to a fantasyland created by video-clip directors.

It’s time for Perry to stop kissing girls and start taking responsibility for the knock-on effect of her thoughtless lyrics.

Duggan’s piece is not the first on the topic of the apparent boom in “celesbianism”, though not many have discussed how shrewdly Perry is pitching her material not at lesbians, or even confused teens, but at men. As Jude Rogers said in the Guardian (on the topic of I Kissed A Girl and its video clip):

[...] When she says “it felt so wrong”, she’s pandering to your thoughts. And when she adds that she hopes that her “boyfriend don’t mind it”, she’s not exactly laying the groundwork for a radical lesbian revolution.