August 2010

Join in the Feminist Blog Carnival

On Friday, August 27th, the first annual “This is What a Feminist Looks Like” Blog Carnival will take place. Inspired by the idea that young feminists are underrepresented—or misrepresented—particularly by the media and older feminists, it’s a day for all young feminists to speak out on their blogs and write about what it means to be a young (or old!) feminist today.

Participating is easy. Just click here to post a link to your blog and grab the icon to post on your blog when you participate.

Vitaminwater Not So Vitamin-y, Akshully

In a shocking move that will shock and surprise everyone (are you shocked yet?) the Coca-Cola company has publicly admitted that their Vitaminwater product is not very healthy. 

In fact, a nonprofit company sued Coca-Cola for making false health claims, and Coke retaliated by basically saying that only an idiot would think their Vitaminwater beverage had vitamins in it.

You know, I'm starting to realize that no one really pays attention to the truth.   Why bother trying to explain things?  Just say what you want that thing to be - regardless of how preposterous you sound - and people will buy it.

Abortions for Under $5

While I was researching abortion clinics several years ago for a paper, I called around to see what the costs were and how many women generally obtained abortions from the clinics. I was only able to locate one clinic within driving distance to our county and was astounded to learn that it was a half a day’s drive there. The person I talked to told me that it’s very common to have to drive far to get an abortion in the United States; in fact, at least 4 out of 5 counties do not have access to an abortion provider. Though she couldn’t tell me any information about the clientele—which I understood—she did tell me that the procedure was around $500. Add that to the gas women had to use, plus a night’s lodging (she said you had to come back the next day to finish the procedure in most cases), and then a follow-up visit (and its gas and possible lodging) later, you’re talking around $1,000 for an abortion.