Ms. Ann Drist’s Blog

I Was Date Raped

Amelia was date raped in college by a guy she liked. Read More »

CDC Sex Assault Data

Adolescent girls and preteen boys are at the highest risk for sexual assault. Read More »

Drunk Is A Feminist Issue

Why women everywhere should be concerned about binge-drinking. Read More »

I’ll admit I was skeptical when I heard that the White House was holding a technology challenge for developers to create an app that would help prevent sexual violence. All of the stuff that I believe can change the prevalence of sexual violence — harsher punishments for criminals, a cultural change on what consent means, a modification of the way we use alcohol and drugs — cannot be found in the App Store. But I’m impressed — very impressed — by the contest’s winning app called Circle Of Six.

Cirlce Of 6 allows you to pick six friends whom you can easily contact when you need help. Text messages are prewritten into the app with messages like “call and pretend you need me, I need an interruption” and “come and get me, I need help going home safely.” The latter message uses GPS on Google Maps to tell your pals your exact location. There’s even an option to call 911 or sexual assault or domestic abuse hotlines.  

The Circle of 6 app is free — yup, free! — so there’s no reason for those of us with smartphones not to download it. (I am right now!) You never know when you might need your friends.

[Apps Against Abuse Challenge]

[Vimeo]

Contact the author of this post at Jessica@TheFrisky.com. Follow me on Twitter at @JessicaWakeman.

A truly brilliant idea — every woman of every age should have this.

Oh, you gotta see this. Absolutely appalling. More at the link.

This is beyond evil, in my opinion. Yeah, I understand: The brilliant misogynist who developed this didn’t mean any harm — hopefully. Just havin’ a little fun. (“Whatsamatter, honey, cantcha take a joke?” “Hey, you oughda be flattered anyone gave a damn about you.”)

This makes every woman open prey, even if we’re talking about men with the very best of intentions. Actually, I can’t really imagine “men with the best of intentions” really using this.

And the implications for personal privacy are in the unspeakable range.

I am aghast.

Soon after that, the harassing calls started coming to his home. By the dozens, at all hours. Friends asked him how they could help. He began to take down the names and phone numbers of people who made unwanted calls. And he gave the information to his friends and asked them to call these folks back.

“In a very calm, very respectful voice, they said that the Stave family thanks you for your prayers,” he said. “They cannot terminate the lease, and they do not want to. They support women’s rights.”

This started with a dozen or so friends, and then it grew. Soon, more than a thousand volunteers were dialing.

If they could find the information, Stave’s supporters would ask during the callbacks how the children in the family were doing and mention their names and the names of their schools. “And then,” Stave said, “we’d tell them that we bless their home on such and such street,” giving the address.

The family of a protester who called Stave’s home could get up to 5,000 calls in return.

Fabulous idea. Turnabout is fair play. Just as long as they keep it down several notches from the protests and otehr behaviors they’re responding to.

This a-hole happens to be a legislator in MY State (Georgia). Give them a little power and they wanna play omnipotent. Read about the other 100 atrocities against women’s rights going on right now in a legislature near you.

We need a lot more good common sense like this. Excellent article, btw.

I was suffering from what mental health experts call “internalized oppression” — the belief that somehow I wasn’t qualified to make my own decisions about my own life.

I could have died that day. I could have bled to death.  And if I had, my baby at home would have not had a mother.

Damn Republican legislators for making any woman value her own life less than the “life” of a handful of cells the size of a walnut. Damn Republican legislators for using a woman’s personal decisions about her own life to get donors, or votes, for their own political advancement. Damn Republican legislators for valuing women below their own greedy career aspirations and the opportunity to make money as lobbyists later on.

Indeed. INDEED.

The GOP has awakened the sleeping giant that is American womanhood — and sisterhood. THIS time I hope we don’t go to sleep again, ever, but take our rightful place among those who wield power. I’ll be working for 51% OR MORE representation everywhere, everywhere. Just for starters.

As the only Republican Congressman at a rally for the Equal Rights Amendment on Thursday, Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) gave women an unexpected piece of advice: Give your money to Democrats.

“I think these are very precarious times for women, it seems. So many of your rights are under assault,” he told the crowd of mostly women. “I’ll tell you this: Contribute your money to people who speak out on your behalf, because the other side — my side — has a lot of it. And you need to send your own message. You need to remind people that you vote, you matter, and that they can’t succeed without your help.”

The Equal Rights Amendment, which Congress passed in 1972 but has not yet been ratified by the necessary 38 states, simply says that equality under the law “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) reintroduced the legislation this year in hopes that it would finally become a part of the Constitution.

“If equality had been enshrined in the Constitution for these past 40 years, I wonder if we would still be hearing today from right-wing presidential contenders that women should not serve in combat, that women should think twice before they seek to work outside of the house, that women should not use birth control, and that women who do are called names that are not fit to repeat here,” Maloney said at the rally.

This one’s worth keeping. That makes one. More at the link.

Trayvon Martin

I feel obligated to express what my thoughts and feelings are about Trayvon. In all honesty, I tried to avoid the news regarding this young brother’s death because it is frankly psychologically frustrating and torturous for me. My soul is still recovering from the Troy Davis saga with all its horrifying implications of blatant injustice, brute state sponsored violence, and our powerlessness as a people to stop his murder. How many more protest marches in futile cries for justice in America for wrongful killings of Black men? How many more pontificating Black leaders on television, exploiting tragedy for personal public prestige? How much more of our pain and anguish can we post on Facebook or Tweet back and forth as if we were really prepared to do something about the perpetual open season on Black male life?