It’s the first day of the Supreme Court’s 2013 term. Head over to SCOTUSblog to read about what’s coming up.
Category: womens issues
Fallen Disney Princesses
These photographs by Dina Goldstein are great; I especially love the Rapunzel one. There’s a short interview where the creator explains how her princess-obsessed daughter was her motivation behind the series. I did several comic strips along the same line during my Six Chix days. Here’s the title page from the chapter “Happily Ever After” in my book, Humor’s Edge:
Helen Thomas 1920 -2013
Journalist Helen Thomas died yesterday at the age of 92. A tenacious and outspoken trailblazer for many young female reporters, Thomas covered the White House for over fifty years. Her career unfortunately ended in controversy but I will forever remember and thank her for this exchange with then White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. If only all journalists approached their jobs like Helen did. 
Dear Malala: I am writing this letter to explain why we tried to kill you
In a bizarre development, a senior member of the Pakistani Taliban has written a letter to Malala Yousafzai explaining why the Taliban tried to murder the then 15 year-old school girl. The handwritten, rambling, 4-page letter (which jumps around from British colonialism to pointing out that Henry Kissinger is Jewish) insisted that she was not targeted because of her support for education, but because of her “smearing campaign” against the Taliban. Last Friday Malala delivered a very inspiring speech at the United Nations supporting girls’ education and received a standing ovation. It’s as though the Taliban just realized that they need to launch a PR campaign to fix their misogynistic image.
Children having children
Apparently, Chile has it’s own version of Gov. Rick Perry:
“Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has praised as ‘brave and mature’a pregnant 11-year-old rape victim who said she was happy to have the child.” (BBC news)
*Update- the Texas House voted in favor of the 20 week ban on abortion, moving it to the Senate where it’s expected to pass.
Gov. Perry’s reaction to Wendy Davis’ filibuster
While the Supreme Court was concluding their historic 2012 session, there was another important political story last week taking place in the Texas legislature. State Senator Wendy Davis led a 11 hour filibuster against a restrictive anti-abortion bill, which resulted in Gov. Rick Perry calling for another special session after time ran out before the bill could be voted on. Since the drama unfolded last Wednesday, the I-can’t-remember-the-third-one Texas governor has been following the Todd Akin model, giving a speech to a Right to Life group where he mentioned that since Ms. Akin had been a teen-age mom herself and said that it’s “unfortunate that she hasn’t learned from her own example”.
animation: Rick Perry’s condescending response to Wendy Davis’ filibuster
A historic week at the Supreme Court
Here’s a few photos from this morning at the Court: 
SCOTUS update
We’re down to the last week of the Supreme Court’s 2012 term and still no opinions on gay marriage, affirmative action, and voting rights. SCOTUSblog will begin live blogging Monday at 9am and expect opinions to start coming in at 10am. As I mentioned before, I’ll be doing live sketches of the action outside of the Court so check back here and at the Washington Post. 
Historic week for gay marriage and equal rights
Crowds line up for gay marriage cases. Photo by David Lloyd
Today the Supreme Court of the United States will hear the first of two cases for same-sex marriage. Opponents will argue that legalizing these unions will destroy the traditional definition of marriage since marriage is about “responsible procreation and child-rearing” (tell that to couples who choose not to have children or the elderly couple who have found happiness again). This is a simple question of equal rights. Why shouldn’t gays, who pay taxes and participate in society just like anyone else, be able to marry? Churches will still be able to decide which couples can be married within the church; this will not impact them. It will be interesting to see which Justices support the Separation of Church and State and which ones are still living in the pre-Loving v. Virginia era.
White smoke, new pope
The wait (and excessive media coverage- but that’s another post) is over. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina has been elected pope. This BBC profile of the new pope describes him as “orthodox on sexual matters but strong on social justice”. I see that as a big contradiction. Women’s economic status, especially in poor countries, is affected by the lack of access to contraceptives and their position in society.
March 8th is International Women’s Day
Some good news after the Oscar booby show
Just wanted to offer a glimmer of hope after my last post about the Oscars. I recently returned from a visit to California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where Ralph Eggleston and I did a presentation for the character animation program. During our question and answer segment it was mentioned that women made up 62.5% of student enrollment for the 2012-2013 school year. When I attended CalArts in the early 1980’s there were approximately 6-8 women in the entire program. Progress.
photo courtesy of Amanda Candler, one of the inspiring young women at CalArts. See more of her student work at her blog.