Women Born Transsexual

LA Times Editorial

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-doma-20100713,0,4433537.story

The judge deciding the Proposition 8 case should recognize that the arguments advanced against same-sex marriage fall short.

July 13, 2010

What is the rational basis for laws that deprive gay and lesbian couples of the right to wed? The arguments that have emerged so far — that same-sex marriage is bad for child-rearing and that it damages heterosexual unions — fall apart under the slightest scrutiny. A judge in Massachusetts recognized this in a case involving the federal Defense of Marriage Act; now the judge in the lawsuit against California’s Proposition 8 should do the same.

In declaring the federal marriage act unconstitutional last week, U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro noted that when Congress passed the law in 1996, supporters said it would “encourage responsible procreation and child-rearing” and protect traditional heterosexual marriage. The law recognizes only heterosexual marriage for federal purposes. Supporters of Proposition 8 used almost identical language during the 2008 campaign to ban recognition of same-sex marriage in the state.

In this year’s trial on the proposition, however, even its defenders were unable to show that same-sex marriage threatened the traditional institution of marriage. And not only is there ample reason to doubt that the children of gay and lesbian couples are any worse off than those in traditional families, that’s not reasonable grounds for denying marriage based on sexual orientation. Many people make less-than-ideal parents. They aren’t denied a wedding license because of it.

Continue Reading at:  http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-doma-20100713,0,4433537.story

From Project Syndicate:  http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/wolf25/English

Naomi Wolf

2010-06-30

OXFORD – I confess: I do it, too. Like most Western women, I do it regularly, and it is a guilty pleasure every time. It is hard to listen to one’s conscience when one is faced with so much incredible temptation.

I am talking, of course, about cheap trendy fashion. I’ll visit a Zara – or H&M, or, now that I am in the United Kingdom for the summer, the amazing Primark – and snap up items that are “cute,” effectively disposable, and so shockingly inexpensive that one does a double take.

I need to face my addiction – and so do all women like me.

Fashion has been transformed by the recent emergence of retail chains that hire good designers to make throwaway clothing and accessories that are right on trend. This evolution has freed Western women from the tyranny of a fashion industry that in the bad old days would dictate a style, compelling women to invest heavily in updating their wardrobes, and then blithely declare their entire closets obsolete – again and again, with no end in sight.

Continue Reading at: http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/wolf25/English

Cheap or expensive so much of the clothing we wear and other product we use  are manufactured using virtual slave labor in far away lands.  With the surplus value created between the cost of manufacture and the final sale filling the coffers of the wealthy and privileged elites.

In turn the dollars spent on advertising literally create the constant stream of right wing propaganda that keeps us ignorant of how we ourselves are exploited.

See also: Retail: It’s Complicated by Aminatou Sow over on Feministe: http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2010/07/14/retail-its-complicated/