Items of interest found recently in my RSS feed. What did I miss? Please share what you've been reading (and writing!) in the comments.

• Misogyny in Music: Art vs Science

– “Generally what happens is this: I’m driving along, listening to a new song, usually enjoying it – maybe even for the first few times I hear it. And then I really listen to the lyrics, and there’s a grunching moment. There’s rape culture, right there on my radio, right there in the songs crowds are rocking out to at this years’ festivals. Right there in the words being joyfully screamed out from moshpits everywhere. And it’s bloody depressing.”

• Islam And Feminism | Muslim Feminists

– “This patronising discourse arrogantly assumes the way to overcome patriarchy is to abandon Islam and adopt ”Western values”. How can a constructive effort to improve the situation of women begin when the conversation is so unsophisticated, demeaning and primitive?”

• Battlestar Galactica: Disability In Space

– “Despite the fact that some people turn up their noses at science fiction and all it stands for, it is often the most striking television in terms of depicting equality;”

Similar Posts:

• Femmostroppo Reader – January 20, 2010 by tigtog
• Femmostroppo Reader – August 20, 2009 by tigtog
• Femmostroppo Reader – August 7, 2009 by tigtog
• Femmostroppo Reader – July 27, 2009 by tigtog
• Femmostroppo Reader – August 11, 2009 by tigtog

The latest Nielsen polls seem to show an electorate that’s not quite sure who’s offering what on climate change:

Crucially in this election year, support for [the Rudd government's] emissions trading scheme (ETS) proposal is down 10 points [since last November] to 56 per cent.

When voters were offered a choice between Labor’s ETS and Mr Abbott’s alternative fund to finance emissions reductions, 45 per cent of those polled preferred the fund and 39 per cent backed the trading scheme.

But when voters were asked to choose between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s broad approaches to climate change, 43 per cent supported Mr Rudd’s approach and 30 per cent backed Mr Abbott.

That looks like an electorate which has absorbed negative messages from all sides about the ETS being environmentally inadequate (true) and financially threatening (arguable), yet who still don’t trust Abbott to take climate change as seriously as they do themselves.

The Poll Bludger sums up the Neilsen poll results:

The latest Nielsen poll has Labor’s two-party lead at 54-46, down from 56-44 in November. The Coalition is up four points on the primary vote to 41 per cent, with Labor steady on 42 per cent (no figure is provided for the Greens as far as I can see). The Prime Minister’s personal ratings have taken a hit, his approval rating down six to 60 per cent and disapproval up four to 33 per cent. The poll is the first since Tony Abbott became Liberal leader, and finds him with 44 per cent approval and 41 per cent disapproval. Kevin Rudd’s lead as preferred prime minister is 58-31, compared with 67-21 in the twilight of Turnbull’s leadership. The sample size was 1400.

No doubt Possum Comitatus at Pollytics will have some more analysis (and graphs!) later this morning.

That’s still a solid lead for Labor and for Rudd as preferred PM. The best that can be said for Abbott is that he has lifted the figures from Turnbull’s nadir, but I’m sure the Libs were hoping for a bigger bump from the change in leadership than this. The comfortable figures for Labor/Rudd also indicate that climate change rhetoric alone will not be a big enough pull for voters to tick the Libs box on a ballot form.

Similar Posts:

• The great Leader of the Opposition yawnfest by tigtog
• Homo Minchinosaurus herd returns to the Opposition front bench by tigtog
• Go go Gillard by tigtog
• Not just change by tigtog
• Careful there voters! You can’t return the Boogieman like an unwanted Christmas present, you know! But Unca John can keep your economy safe…why won’t you trust me? by tigtog

Morbidly concerned with appropriate discipline for a teen who downloaded several gigs of Youtubes the other weekend for a start. I’m on 64kbps until next Monday unless I dive into my netbook’s mobile broadband allowance.

How was your weekend?Similar Posts:

• Will the Grauniad’s servers cope? by tigtog
• He writes letters by Lauredhel
• Whoydensday: Fix-it fic (with bonus women-kicking-arse picspam) by Beppie
• Long weekend + school holidays = light posting by tigtog
• Talking about acting childish, by tigtog

From the Things I Love files today: Beautifully covered cookbooks.

Sure, the other cookbooks get pulled out plenty for their content. Mrs Beeton’s, the C.W.A. Cookbook, The Cook’s Companion, Complete Vegetarian, How To Eat, 101 Muffins, Trattoria Pasta, the Women’s Weeklies – all these get plenty of bench time and are suitably be-dripped and bedraggled.

But every time I get out Thompson’s* thai food or Maggie’s Harvest, I have to stop to admire and stroke the cover, spend just a moment with it, before opening. Embroidered trees and birds! Hot pink silk! They’re the whole package.

If we’re right into confession time, every now and then I get them out just to admire and stroke the covers.

(* Ever notice that we tend to call these cookbooks “Stephanie”, “Charmaine”, “Maggie”, and “Nigella”; but people typically don’t refer to “David”?)

Tell me about your cookbooks and recipe repositories, or your favourite strokable book covers. Or both.

Similar Posts:

• Friday Hoyden from fiction: Jo Marsh March, Little Women by tigtog
• Friday Hoyden: Peg Bracken by Guest Hoyden
• Belated Friday Hoydens: The Witches of Lancre by tigtog
• Puking up pink by tigtog
• Review: In Bed With by Beppie

Items of interest found recently in my RSS feed. What did I miss? Please share what you've been reading (and writing!) in the comments.

• Shaking hands with Death

– “Terry Pratchett recently had the honour of giving the Richard Dimbleby Lecture. It was actually given by Tony Robinson as Pratchett’s early-onset Alzheimer’s can make it difficult to read. But Robinson was wonderful himself and Pratchett’s lecture lost nothing by using a “Stunt-Pratchett”. It was sad, funny, wonderfully argued and most of all, defiant.

Pratchett mounted an excellent case for assisted dying. One that will be very hard to counter. “

• A new year, but the same old show

– “Bolt can’t even make sure the claims he makes in a single post are logically consistent with each other.”

• I Know You Mean Well

– “Every time I post about sexism, along come some men to make the conversation be about them. They usually start with a question about what they as a man can do, or how it applies to them. Before too long the entire comment thread becomes about them. Or even if the other commenters don’t take the bait, the blokes keep coming back with more related questions, all of which has the effect of not adressing the subject at hand, but trying to bring it back to its “proper” place: talking about men.”

Similar Posts:

• Femmostroppo Reader – January 20, 2010 by tigtog
• Femmostroppo Reader – January 17, 2010 by tigtog
• Femmostroppo Reader – September 22, 2009 by tigtog
• Femmostroppo Reader – February 8, 2010 by tigtog
• Femmostroppo Reader – January 13, 2010 by tigtog

The Bumper Coming-of-age Twenty-First Edition Down Under Feminists Carnival is up at The Radical Radish!. Check it out now.

The range of posts tackles domesticity, race, trusting women, respect, politics, activism, body image, sexuality, media, movies, SF, fashion and rape culture. And there is tea.

The Twenty-Second Carnival, covering posts from February, will be hosted by fuckpoliteness in early March, so get your thinking caps on and your keyboards warmed up.

Submissions are due by 2nd March, and should go to Blogcarnival by preference. If you can’t access the captcha there, email them to to kirstinsteward at gmail dot com.

Share and enjoy!
Similar Posts:

• The 20th Down Under Feminists Carnival is up! by Lauredhel
• 19th Down Under Feminist Carnival is up at Mynxii’s by Lauredhel
• Carnival! We’re turning TWENTY-ONE! by Lauredhel
• 18th Down Under Feminist Carnival is up at Wallaby by Lauredhel
• Down Under Feminists Carnival! At the Hand Mirror by Lauredhel

It’s Otterday! Today’s river otters were photographed at Yellowstone – please go check out the rest of the photos at Laurie’s Blog.

Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires. Is there anything great happening in your life? Anything you want to get off your chest? Reading a great book? Anything in the news that you’d like to discuss? What have you created lately? Commiserations, felicitations, temptations, contemplations, speculations? Similar Posts:

• Otterday, and Open Thread by Lauredhel
• Otterday! And Open Thread. by Lauredhel
• Otterday, and Open Thread by Lauredhel
• Otterday! And Open Thread. by Lauredhel
• Otterday, and Open Thread by Lauredhel

For those wondering how on earth aid to a disaster area can exist without huge-scale donations of infanf formula from the United States, or wondering how to explain this to others, this press release from ILCA, and the links therein may extend understanding.

[notes: I prefer the terms "cross-nursing" or "shared breastfeeding", which don't so much recall the monetary implications and classist/racist history of "wet-nursing". Emphases and some links are added by me. You are welcome to reproduce this anywhere, with a backlink.]

Summary:

- Donate money, not stuff.
- Formula kills in an emergency, even when properly prepared.
- Even in the context of HIV, exclusive breastfeeding (including cross-nursing) is safer than artificial feeding.
- There is not a shortage of breastmilk in Haiti; 99% of young infants were breastfed before the emergency.
- Feed mothers and keep them safe; promote and support expression (when separated) and re-lactation.

Press Release by ILCA, February 1, 2010

FOR HAITI ORPHANS WET NURSING CAN SAVE LIVES

A new statement issued jointly by UNICEF, the World Health Organisation, and Pan American Health Organization, reminds relief workers, healthcare professionals, and the public that in an emergency such as the Haiti earthquake, the key to survival of all infants, including orphans, is breastfeeding. When a child is motherless or separated from his or her mother, wet nursing, that is, direct breastfeeding from another lactating mother, is the safest feeding option. Since the breastfeeding rate in Haiti is very high[99% of 0-5 mo are breastfed], there is a good likelihood of being able to find wet nurses for large numbers of motherless infants.

UNICEF, WHO and PAHO have recommended wet nursing, also called “cross nursing” or “shared breastfeeding,” for infants without mothers to “ensure their survival in an emergency situation.” There are a very small number of pathogens that may be transmitted via breastfeeding, including HIV. However, the risk of transmission of HIV via breastfeeding is low. The alternative to wet nursing for motherless infants is use of infant formula. The situation is Haiti is such that formula feeding presents a greater risk than the possibility of HIV infection via wet nursing.

Formula feeding in an emergency is extremely difficult and dangerous. Even when properly prepared, infant formula actively and passively harms the immune system of young babies, placing them at risk of life-threatening diarrhea and respiratory illness. [The Emergency Nutrition Network provides information on how formula can cause deaths due to diarrhea in an emergency.]

Formula feeding also requires extensive investment from the supporting aid agency. This includes a constant supply of infant formula; a stable supply of clean water; a stove and fuel to boil water; a pot, kettle, and feeding cups. Bottles and teats (artificial nipples) should never be used in emergency conditions because they are too difficult to adequately clean. Caregivers also need a clean storage environment, education on minimizing the risks of formula feeding, and medical supervision. This support should be provided not just in the immediate emergency, but until the infant is 12 months old [note Article 6.7 of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes .

According to the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA), wet nursing is not new, and has been practiced since the beginning of time not just in emergencies, but for convenience of mothers. The practice was made more visible with reports of actress Salma Hayek, who breastfed a suffering child in Sierra Leone last year, and Chinese police officer Jiang Xiaojuan, who was reported to have breastfed five additional infants besides her own after the May 2008 earthquake in China.

ILCA provides additional recommendations on supporting breastfeeding mothers consistent with directives from international relief organizations, including:

* Feed the mother so she can, in turn, feed her infant.
* Provide a safe environment for breastfeeding if needed, including providing a private area or a way to breastfeed discreetly, if the mother desires it.
* Assist mothers who are separated from their infants with regular milk removal to avoid engorgement and maintain their milk production for when they are reunited with their baby.
* Assist mothers with re-establishing their milk production if they have already weaned their baby.

ILCA also strongly encourages the general public to avoid the temptation to donate infant formula to Haiti and, instead, to donate funds to relief organizations for use in meeting highest priority needs. Aid agencies supporting infants in Haiti that cannot be breastfed have procured the supplies that they need. Donations of infant formula only complicate the secure and sanitary provision of aid by workers on the ground. The organizations providing aid to breastfed and formula-fed infants in Haiti include: UNICEF, Save the Children, Action Against Hunger and World Vision.

ILCA has several free downloadable resources for families, health care providers, and relief workers in English, Spanish, and French. The website also has a user-friendly “Find a Lactation Consultant Directory” of available International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) worldwide who can assist new mothers or relief workers with lactation.

CONTACT
Jim Smith, Executive Director International Lactation Consultant Association 919-861-5577 jim@ilca.org
Weekend/Evening Requests:Cathy Carothers, cathycarothers@ilca.org
ILCA Press Room

Similar Posts:

• Face of rescue: Women’s work by Lauredhel
• Haiti In Pictures: “You Can’t Show THAT” by Lauredhel
• Call to activism: oppose infant formula promotion in Qld Indigenous communities by Lauredhel
• 13 000 babies hospitalised from melamine in infant formula by Lauredhel
• PSA: The CDC on swine flu and breastfeeding by Lauredhel

Relatives of missionary family shot down by CIA denounce ‘cover up’. The headline elides a few facts from the 2001 incident – the Bowers’ family plane was actually shot down by the Peruvian air force after a CIA spotter plane mis-identified it as a drug-runner and called the Peruvians in. Recently obtained video recordings show that the CIA team then had second thoughts, but:

Unable to speak Spanish except for a few phrases, the CIA team had difficulty calling off the operation.

WTF? Two questions:

1. Given that the USA has a large proportion of its population who are native speakers of Spanish, and that many more of its population speak it well because they live alongside native speakers of Spanish, why the hell did the CIA send any non-Spanish-speaking operatives to Peru in the first place?
2. How many other misidentified planes that “fit the profile” have been shot down with non-drug-runners killed, but because they weren’t white Christian missionaries there’s been no international outrage?

Similar Posts:

• We’re in ur land, redeemin ur children. by Lauredhel
• Quick Hit: Want Androcur? Join the Sex Offender Registry! by Wildly Parenthetical
• Whitewashing and white ribbons by tigtog
• What do disabled people, fat people, and indigenous languages have in common? They’re not disposable. by Lauredhel
• We wouldn’t need immigrants if we could just force women to have babies by tigtog

logansrogue (napalmnacey) points out an ad for AAMI insurance’s “Safe Driver Rewards” programme.

The ad features a series of people in the aftermath of crashes admitting to culpable driving, to the tune of “What About Me”. Check it out:

Pregnant laydeez! How dare you go out in public in the possession of a pregnant uterus? Irresponsible, the lot of you. You deserve to pay as much in insurance costs as people who twitter and read maps while driving.

Also, how ditzy are blonde chicky-babes, eh? Eh? Nudge, nudge? They’re a way bigger threat to society than assholes who get pissed and hoon around racing and road-raging.

As napalmnacey observes in comments:

Let’s? see if they make jokes about men whose appendix happens to burst while they’re driving, hmm?

Similar Posts:

• “Digital diminishment” and problems of scale. by Lauredhel
• Toyota “Pounding” ad. by Lauredhel
• Independent midwife clients granted a brief reprieve – or are they? by Lauredhel
• Women who have had C sections may struggle to get health insurance in the USA by Lauredhel
• If women are “frazzled” they’re neurotic, says Tele’s Kevin Hepworth by tigtog