Sick I Am

Haven't felt good in a few days, will resume regular habits soon. In the interim, please check out some old blogs. Or the links below for some new news.

Here is a quick link: Ellen Goodman has a great column about the news that the FDA is set to approve over-the-counter sale of emergency contraception. While it may seem like a victory, it truly isn't. Young women, who most likely need EC the most, will not have easy access and will still face the obstacles they face today. This sends the tired and overplayed message that motherhood is the punishment for having sex.

Or this: South African Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi says that women have a duty to be subject to--and carry out--virginity tests in the name of curbing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. So essentially, if a woman has sex they are disease-ridden whores responsible for the demise of the earth. Nice touch. Supposedly, these "virginity tests" are designed to squash the "virgin cure"--whereby it is widely believed in parts of Africa that a man positive with HIV can have sex with a virgin and be cured of the disease. Virginity tests aren’t about dispelling myths of a “virgin cure,” they’re about the (false) idea that women’s virginity will prevent HIV/AIDS. And the men? Apparently they don’t have any "duties" when it comes to disease prevention.

Newly released documents show that an army base in Missouri dismissed sixty soldiers last year alone on the basis of "don't ask, don't tell." Good thing there's not a war going on!