Rice negatively discusses the violence done to women in conflict & postconflict environments…but she also strongly believes that women in Afghanistan and Iraq have been served by US intervention and war.

Rice also advocates for women’s rights as a reason to put pressure on foreign governments. I don’t disagree with the idea behind that — women’s rights, all human rights, should be an important part of international dialogue and countries should pressure each other to raise the bar — but I am deeply suspicious of it in practice. Women’s rights have been “important” only when castigating a country for failing on that front aligns with US foreign policy and warmaking/”peacekeeping” — period. And it would be one thing if that selective-vision of women’s rights simply meant that progress were uneven, but what it has actually meant is that there IS no progress. And women in fact lose out, time and again.

I, too, am encouraged that she brought up the actions of UN peacekeepers. But then, the administration of which she’s a part has tended to be much more critical of the UN than the US, when it comes to military action, so maybe her critique of the UN isn’t that suprising. Did she mention the woman-abusing habits of the US troops abroad? No.

I don’t think Rice is evil. I think Rice does care about women. And I’m not interested in deriding her for caring about women. But no, I’m also not interested in promoting her initiatives. Rice is wrong, dead wrong, and that matters. So, engaging her (constructively) seems like the way forward for feminists, IMO.

In a recent murder case in my area, a man named Rafael Robb beat his wife to death with a piece of exercise equipment, three days before Christmas–and hours before she planned to move out. He was sentenced to five to ten years, for “voluntary manslaughter.” And the judge said he’d been considering a lighter sentence–before he learned that Robb had written his teenage daughter a letter threatening to withhold her Christmas present unless she sent him her report card and a recent photo. He murdered her mother, yet he still thinks he has a right to tell her what to do. And yet this man, too, supposedly feels remorse.

His lawyer claimed Robb was a “victim” of his wife’s depression. Normal when they married, after years of his controlling behavior, she had become a reclusive hoarder who was severely depressed. Man drives wife crazy, then kills her when she tries to leave him. But it was her own fault–because she was “crazy.” How often have we heard this scenario? And how can they still claim they’re “sorry” when they’re still blaming the victim?

Five years–that’s what a woman’s life is worth. What a great message to send this man’s daughter. I’m sorry this comment is such a bummer. I used to live in southeastern Michigan and I’ve seen a lot of faces like that man’s face. It’s so horrible to be confronted once again with the fact that I have to live with people like that, and never even know who they are until it’s too late. What’s even worse than the fact that these two woman-murderers did not ever believe their actions were wrong is the fact that our society does not give them clear messages that they are wrong–either before or after their horrific deeds.

What a campaign that must have been.

Why not simply adopt the swedish model and criminalise all individuals which means it will target male Johns and send a very strong message that yes, women are human too and no women are not men’s sex slaves. Jacqui Smith claims she had to take into account the numbers of women who ‘choose’ to work in prostitution but this ignores overwhelming evidence that prostitution exists because it reinforces male supremacy and one of the reasons for the rise in prostitution is due to the commercialisation of the so-called sex industry. Enormous profits are made by companies and individuals who are not directly involved in prostitution. On the issue of ‘choice’ there is no such thing as ‘free and autonomous choice’ when it is men demanding and expecting to have the right to masturbate into women’s and girls’ bodies. The same excuses were used when first wave feminists targetted prostitution and these same excuses and justifications still abound. Bottom line is challenging male demand goes right to the root of male supremacy and domination over all women. Norway has taken a bold and right step in announcing it will criminalise all individuals (read men) who buy women for the purpose of male sexual gratification.