Feminism, Bads News, and some good.

The treatment of women is still a troubling issue dealt with in every nation. It is still worrying, and aggravating, that improvements look to come so slowly.

Feministing has some stories on some troubling treatment and attitudes. But also a piece of good news.

Let's start with the good news...ease our way in.

Ugandan law struck down for being sexist

Here's some good news: The adultery law in Uganda has been struck down by the Constitutional Court because it was sexist.

The law made it an offence for a married woman to have an affair, but it allowed a cheating husband to have an affair with an unmarried woman.

The attorney general said the move may encourage immorality and promiscuity.

In the same ruling, the court also scrapped parts of the Succession Act which gave more rights to men on the death of their wives, than to widows.

Under the previous law, women who were found guilty of adultery could be fined or even sent to prison.

Good. Plenty of other troubling issues of treatment of women in Africa, but it is a step in the right direction.

Now the disconcerting.
Victim-blaming at its finest

Shorter Kathleen Parker: Women in the military are raped because they're stupid enough to be around men.

Oh, and the ladies are probably exaggerating anyway. No, seriously. Check out these gems:

No serious person doubts that sexual harassment and even rape occur in a war zone. But the degree to which sex is consensual or forced -- often a question of he-said-she-said -- is further complicated by military hierarchy and the extenuating circumstances (and passions) of war.

...Clearly, some of what is considered sexual harassment falls into the category of harmless sport -- the usual towel-snapping that is, in fact, a way to neutralize sex.

This one is my all-time fave though:

But more overt sexual aggression may be the product of something few will acknowledge, at least on the record: resentment.

Off the record, in dozens of interviews over a period of years, male soldiers and officers have confided that many men resent women because they've been forced to pretend that women are equals, and men know they're not.

And clearly, the best way to put us bitches back in our place is with a good raping, huh?

This perspective is definitely a twisted one. Women are just inferior? It is a desperate attempt to justify something that is so despicable. I shudder to try and imagine why she is trying to defend these acts.

Quick hit: The 13-Year-Old Prostitute

Check out this piece in New York Magazine about teen sex workers and how the law in New York punishes them instead of helping them.

If Lucilia were a 13-year-old Chinese girl smuggled to New York and made to work in a Queens brothel, she would not be seen, in the eyes of the authorities, as a prostitute at all. She would be a sex slave, a victim of human trafficking, and if she had the good fortune to be discovered by the police, she would be given federal protection and shielded by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. But she’s not.

In this city, a U.S. citizen like Lucilia is seen by the law as a prostitute.

Some disturbing stuff.

Is there anyway to say it? This is just messed up. Enslaved. Abused. A CHILD! And she is to blame? What about the legal protections enshrined to protect children.

It says something of the troubling view of "prostitutes". This is a child before anything else. No violent crimes, none what so ever. So, how can even a conservative look over that critical first point. CHILD.

Get Tough. Three Strikes. Things like them are great sound bites and vote getters. But is a callous and blind approach better for society? Is it better for people?

Oh, and now it gets worse.
Man who raped 10 year-old gets no jail time

A judge in Wales has let a 20 year-old man who raped a 10 year-old off with no jail time because the man was "acutely embarrassed and ashamed" and "his belief that she was over 16." Yeah.

Liam Edgecombe, from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, was given a conditional discharge by the judge, saying he could see why he thought the girl was 16.
The court heard Edgecombe, who admitted rape, was "visibly traumatised" when he was told the girl's real age.
Mr Justice Roderick Evans, at Swansea Crown Court, said the girl "was looking for a man and got what she wanted".
Oh, but the class doesn't end there. The judge also brought up that "it was not [the girl's] first sexual experience."

Well I guess that makes raping a 10 year-old all good then.

There is an old sort of joke. "I thought she was/She told me she was 16/18."

In case you are waiting, you can officially start finding it unfunny.

She was looking for it? She was...DAMN IT! It is a...a 10 year old. Of course, the judge said he could see how the RAPIST could mistake the 10 YEAR OLD for a 16 year old...What the hell is happening in Wales? He's a 20 year old, he asked her twice what her age was, to which she was evasive...So he was worried, but figured it was worth it? Oh and he was traumatized. Shoot! He thought he got himself a nice young barely legal girl...OOPS! So if she was 12 or 13, he'd be a lot better?

Push comes to shove, what we have is a ten year old having sex, and her sexual history makes her LEGALLY available to be used by adults. That is sick and utterly irresponsible act by the court. She asked for it. This is beyond the pale. What history does she have? What kind of consent? If this is an abused child, abused once more...guess the judge just didn't care. And if she had sex with another youth, how does that make it okay for a 20-something?

Asking for it...impure and dirty...
This attitude towards women is sick.