Time to blog? Not yet

 I left one conference (WAM!), sped home for a quick hubby sighting, and got on a plane the next day headed for Texas to attend and present at the Sex Trafficking Conference.

I’m disappointed I haven’t been able to write about the amazing (and not so amazing) experience I had in Boston, and how two sessions (We B(e)lo(n)g: Womyn of Color and Online Feminism and Immigration in the U.S.: The Women’s Rights Crisis Feminists Aren’t Talking About) were life-changing.

When I return this weekend, I’ll write a full recap on both conferences. Right now I’m just so happy to be in Texas (Texas? Yes, Texas - The Valley!), and wish I’d visited much sooner. Everyone from the conference organizer to the gas station clerk has welcomed me as if this was home. I’m able to speak Spanish everywhere I go, which is a tremedous luxury, and most of all I wish I brought my passport - the Mexican border is 10 minutes from my hotel. Scream!

In the meantime, visit No Snow Here, La Chola, A Womyn’s Ecdysis, Black Amazon and Viva La Feminista for the WAM! scoop.

And watch Sudy’s flick:

If you’re interested, I was asked to take part in a live panel discussion on Blog Talk Radio. I have to admit I was a little nervous, I’m still not used to being asked to participate in discussions or having people ask for my opinion. So excuse the stuttering, but enjoy the amazing women who engaged in the conversation.

Sidenote: I mentioned on the program that I thought Catherine MacKinnon was the white feminist who stood in solidarity with Andrea Smith; that was incorrect, it was Sherrie Tucker.

The live discussion concludes the Women’s History Month blog carnival, hosted by What Tami Said and Women’s Space. Heart and Tami were joined by Karla Mantilla, Adele Nieves and Shecodes for a great discussion of feminism and its intersection with race and other issues.

Lastly, check out why Brownfemipower made me cry.

Adele Nieves on Blog Talk Radio this weekend

Join us for Come Together: The official live discussion of the Women’s History Month blog carnival

 

Join Heart of Women’s Space and What Tami Said as we conclude our Women’s History Month blog carnival with an hour-long live discussion on Blog Talk Radio, 6 p.m. EDT, Saturday, March 29. We will review our favorite submissions to the blog carnival; discuss issues raised by the carnival, including race and feminism and their roles in the 2008 presidential election; discuss the state of feminism today; and talk about the most effective ways for women to work together towards equality.

We will be joined by panelists including:

Adele Nieves, a writer, journalist, and speaker, focusing on politics, women’s issues and race.

Shecodes, an entrepreneur and activist dedicated to the uplift of black women. Shecodes runs the blog Black Women Vote, described in its inaugural post as “a war cry to all Black women who are fed up, pissed off, and mad as heck about the present conditions of Black womanhood in America, and are ready to do something about it. Make no mistake… we’re about to change some stuff up in this piece! We have the social, economic, political tools to compel America to become more hospitable for ourselves, and for our daughters.”

We also want to hear from YOU. Tune in and call in! Listen live by clicking this link and let your voice be heard by calling (347) 205-9125 during the show.

Watch Women’s Space and What Tami Said for programming updates, including panelist additions.

 Read more at Blog Talk Radio.

NY Times article on Prostitution

The Myth of the Victimless Crime by Melissa Farley and Victor Malarek

WHAT do we know about the woman Gov. Eliot Spitzer allegedly hired as a prostitute? She was the one person he ignored in his apology. What is she going through now? Is she in danger from organized crime because of what she knows? Is anyone offering her legal counsel or alternatives to prostitution?…

Detroit Feminist Women’s Circle - Part II

 DETROIT FEMINSTS EVENT

When

Sunday, March 16, 2008 at 3:00 PM

 Location

Grosse Pointe Park, MI (We picked a central location for this meet-up, one of the organizers will contact those who rsvp’d with the address)

 Details

At our last meet-up we discussed, “How we envision a world were women are truly free?”At the next meet-up we’ll review our ideas, discuss new idea’s, and develop strategies for insighting change. 

These circles will continue growing and extending into greater parts, it’s a process worth sustaining. Please join us in our actions for better world.

 Items to bring

Please bring a dish to share

RSVP

If you are interested in advertising this women’s circle by passing out flyers, please go to our files section, left column of the Detroit Feminist meetup web page.

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. —-Margaret Mead

Andrea & Adele

Sex Trafficking Children - WHY?????

The Wrong Target by Bob Herbert (NY Times)

Across the country, young girls by the thousands - children - are being drawn into the hellishly dangerous world of prostitution. They are raped, beaten and exploited in every way imaginable. Full Story

Sex Trafficking Conference: Help us get there

 Please help Detroit Feminists Andrea Lavigne and Adele Nieves make the trip to McAllen, TX for the Sex Trafficking Conference in early April.

Click on our PayPal account to help sponsor our travel. Every little bit helps, and in the future, you can call on us to do the same.

Con amor (with love),

Detroit Feminists

No one has ever become poor by giving. ~Anne Frank

Past and on-going discussions

    

       

Since most of us will be immersed in family travel, holiday obligations, and volunteer work, the blog may lay idle for a couple of weeks. Therefore, as an introduction to Detroit Feminists, we are posting some of our past and on-going discussion topics, as a way for readers and contributors to get to know us better.

Below are some of the subjects we’ve focused on in the last six months.

CHINA: MOSUO CULTURE

Mosuo Culture: Where Women Rule: But Can China’s Mosuo Culture Hold Off Outside Influences?

Mosuo Song Journey: Link TV

From tourist-ridden villages to remote mountain hamlets, the film resonates with the singing of different generations of Mosuo people in a transitional period under the influence of tourism and pop culture.

YOUTUBE

• George Carlin, Pro-Life is Anti-Women
• Vandana Shiva, eco-feminism is not afraid to criticize…Plant Trees & Be More Womanly
• George Carlin, Consumer Capitalism

VIDEOS

Pornography and Pop Culture (provided by NFAP). Presenters speaking out against pornography culture.

• Gail Dines’ Opening Remarks at the Feminist Anti-Pornography Conference.
• Robert Jensen’s Address to the National Feminist Anti-Pornography Conference
• Robert Wosnitzer, Ana Bridges & Michelle Chang Panel
• Rebecca Whisnant addressing the NFAP
• Gail Dines’ Presentation at NFAP
• “Not for Sale” produced by the European Women’s Lobby and the Coalition Against Trafficking Women

 ARTICLES

• CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez railed against a new trend in beauty-conscious Venezuela, giving girls breast implants for their 15th birthday.. Full story - by Saul Hudson
• To see what Marx, Engels, Lenin and Mao said on the Liberation of Women, click here

DOCUMENTARIES

• Demand

Features investigative footage of the dark and hidden world of sex traffickers, pimps and buyers. DEMAND. exposes the men who buy commercial sex, the vulnerable women and children sold as commodities, and the facilitators of the sale within the marketplace of exploitation.

• NO!

No! explores the international reality of rape, other forms of sexual assault and healing through the first person testimonies, scholarship, spirituality activism, and cultural work of African-Americans. This groundbreaking, award-winning documentary also explores how rape is used as a weapon of homophobia.

BOOKS

• Can’t Buy Me Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel by Jean Kilbourne
• We Got Issues: A Young Woman’s Guide to a Bold, Courageous and Empowered Life by Rha Goddess & JLove Calderon
• Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought
• Prostitution & Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections by Melissa Farley
• This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women Of Color
• Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity by Robert Jensen

DIY: CREATIVE ACTIVISM IDEAS

• Freeway Blogger
• Beach Blogger
• PT Cruiser

Drop us a line, lets us know what you liked, didn’t like, or is missing from our list. This space is for community, the conversation is always open!

City as Predator (Las Vegas)

Since some of you may not have an online subscription to the New York Times, I’m pasting the whole story for all to read.

September 4, 2007, Op-Ed Columnist

City as Predator

By BOB HERBERT

Las Vegas

There is probably no city in America where women are treated worse than in Las Vegas.

The tone of systematic, institutionalized degradation is set by the mayor, Oscar Goodman, who told me in an interview that the city would reap “tremendous” benefits if a series of “magnificent brothels” could be established to cater to johns from across the country and around the world.

“I’ve said there should be the beginning of a discussion of that,” said Mr. Goodman, a former defense lawyer for mobsters who unabashedly describes his city as an adult playground where “anything goes — as long as you don’t go over the line.”

Most of the lines in Vegas have long since been erased. It is without a doubt, as the psychologist and researcher Melissa Farley, says, “the epicenter of North American prostitution and sex trafficking.”

Vegas is a place where women and girls by the tens of thousands are chewed up by the vast and astonishingly open sex trade. You can be sitting at a traffic light and a huge mobile billboard will drive past, promising, “Hot Babes — Direct to Your Room.”

I was drawn to this story by an advance copy of Ms. Farley’s book-length report, “Prostitution and Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections.” It’s being published online today.

The report explores what Oscar Goodman doesn’t appear to understand: the horrendous toll that prostitution, legal or illegal, takes on the women and girls involved. If you peel back the thin, supposedly sexy veneer of the commercial sex trade, you’ll quickly see the rotten inside, where females are bought, sold, raped, beaten, shamed and in many, many cases, physically and emotionally wrecked.

Start with the fact that so many of those who are pulled into the trade are so young — early-20s, late-teens and younger. Child prostitutes by the hundreds pass through the Family Division courtroom of Judge William Voy, who views the hapless, vulnerable girls as victims and tries to help them. The girls he sees are as young as 12, with the average age being 14.

He told me about a 14-year-old who was seven months pregnant by her pimp. She was suffering from a sexually transmitted disease, had a drug problem, was undernourished and still craved a relationship with the pimp. “These cases will tear your heart out,” the judge said.

Ms. Farley was asked to study the Nevada sex trade and its consequences 2 ½ years ago by John Miller, who at the time headed the U.S. State Department’s effort to fight human trafficking around the world. Prostitution is legal in some parts of Nevada but not in Vegas, where 90 percent of the state’s prostitution occurs. Vegas is a world-class embarrassment to any U.S. official attempting to reduce prostitution and trafficking in foreign countries.

“We did surveys of people on the street,” said Ms. Farley, “and nearly half thought prostitution was legal in Las Vegas. Guess why that is? Massive advertising.”

There are more than 150 pages of ads in the Las Vegas yellow pages for “college teens,” “mature women,” “mothers and daughters,” “petite Japanese women,” “Chinese teens in short skirts” and every other variation imaginable. I asked Mayor Goodman about that, and he said: “We’ve changed that a little bit. They used to have pictures.”

Sex clubs with teenage girls dancing nude and offering lap dances to johns are legal, ubiquitous and widely advertised. Many of those girls are either prostitutes or one short step away.

What is not widely understood is how coercive all aspects of the sex trade are. The average age of entry into prostitution is extremely young. The prostitutes are ruthlessly controlled by pimps, club owners and traffickers. In the case of legal prostitution, they are controlled by their own pimps and the brothel owners — pimps who have been legalized by the state.

The women are exploited in every way. Most of the money they receive from johns goes to the pimps, the brothel owners, the escort service managers and so forth. Strippers and lap dancers have to pay for the right to dance in the clubs, and the money they get in tips has to be shared with the club owners, bartenders, bouncers, etc.

Huge numbers of foreign women are trafficked into Vegas. The legions of Asian women in the massage parlors and escort services did not come flocking to Vegas from suburban U.S.A.

Mayor Goodman said that he is no fan of illegal prostitution, but is convinced the legal variety could be a boon. He is proud of his city’s tourist slogan: “What happens here, stays here.”

Back in the ’90s, Las Vegas tried hard to promote a family-friendly image.

“That ended when I became mayor,” said Mr. Goodman.

Link