Women In The Global South Are At The Forefront Of Experiencing The Worst Of Climate Change And They Are

BBC News

Extreme heat can double stillbirth among working women - study - BBC News

Women in India are found to be twice as likely to lose babies if they are working in hot conditions.

Women in the “Global South” are at the forefront of experiencing the worst of climate change and they are facing the gravest of consequences due to global inaction on this catastrophe.

I had a friend in middle school who was Mormon and at that time, I strongly identified with the Lutheran faith and attended an ELCA church. And even as a politically conservative, Christian 13 year old, I got into some intense religious debates with this girl. And she was prepared for every single one because the teenagers went to church every morning before school for Bible study and my Bible knowledge, as the daughter of someone with a ministry degree, absolutely paled in comparison to their level of indoctrination. So I present to you, a short list of weird things I learned about the Mormon faith as a teenager:

1. They think Heaven has levels. And everyone goes to Heaven regardless of religion, it's just a matter of which level. It's my understanding that the only way to go to Hell is to be an Ex-morman.

2. They don't drink caffeine or alcohol. My friend did drink Mountain Dew occasionally, so I think caffeine may have been more of a personal preference. The bizarre thing about this is that everyone knows how heavily featured wine is in the Bible. These people took communion with water rather than have a teaspoon of wine.

3. They have a holy book that I later learned was "translated" by Joseph Smith from an Egyptian scroll of hieroglyphics, which only he could understand. The only problem is that we eventually found the Rosetta Stone and lots of people learned to decipher hieroglyphics, and as it turns out, none of the information in that book matches what the scrolls actually say, something Mormons choose to conveniently ignore.

Per what I've seen on social media, my friend ended up going to the same college they all go to (you know which one) getting married young (shocker), and surprisingly, getting divorced young. I don't know if she still identifies as Morman, but I have learned that attacking people's core beliefs will just make them double down on them. It is my hope that she has had some time to critically examine her faith through a new lens.

As someone who loves clothing, whether thrifted, handmade, or store-bought, I will never, ever, purchase something from Shein or Temu. There is no way those clothes can be made ethically. Think about how long it takes to sew something. You could probably make a simple garment in a few hours if you know what you are doing. Multiple a livable wage (at the absolute very LEAST $15/hr if not more) by the number of hours it takes to make that garment and you will very quickly realize there is no ethical way to sell a dress for $20.

If you are buying new clothing, I would highly suggest checking out the Fashion Transparency Index from Fashion Revolution. Their website describes it at "a tool to push and incentivise the world’s largest fashion brands to be more transparent about their social and environmental efforts. Fashion Revolution believes that transparency is foundational to achieving systemic change in the global fashion industry, which is why we have been campaigning for it since 2014, and why we created this Index."

Their website and the yearly report are full of statistics about the fashion industry both as a whole and for specific brands, broken down by category.

I think more people on radblr should be talking about sweatshops, especially in the garment industry.

• Around 80% of sweatshop workers are women. Some employers force them to take birth control and pregnancy tests to avoid having to pay for maternity leave. Pregnant women are routinely denied sick leave to visit doctors, terminated from their contracts early, or left without any maternity leave when their short-term contracts are not renewed.

• Women are more likely than men to experience minimum wage violations. According to one study, "30 percent of the women workers in our sample experienced minimum wage violations, compared to 20 percent of the men". [Source: https://www.nelp.org/publication/broken-laws-unprotected-workers-violations-of-employment-and-labor-laws-in-americas-cities/ ]

• Indonesian women employees report that “girls in the factory are harassed by male managers. They come on to the girls, call them into their offices, whisper into their ears, touch them, bribe them with money and threaten them with firing if they don’t have sex with them.” [source: cleanclothes.org]

• "Toilet breaks are monitored, and some workers said they were flat out denied them, even when sick. The same goes for water and lunch breaks, both necessary to stay healthy when working 12+ hour days in a stuffy, overcrowded factory." 20% of women in sweatshops report experiencing sexual violence. [https://iwda.org.au/three-ways-garment-factories-violate-the-rights-of-women-and-how-its-allowed-to-happen/ ]

It's easy not to support this kind of abuse. Do not buy clothes first-hand. Only buy from thrift shops and second-hand apps, or find ethical brands and investigate where and how they make their clothing (hint: if a t-shirt costs $3, it's not ethical). Patch your old clothes. Consider learning basic sewing (it's not as difficult as it seems!)

I don't care how cheap Shein and Temu are. I don't care how much you think you need that specific Zara coat. Buying clothes directly harms women and avoiding it is a very easy way to help.

I would rather some people feel uncomfortable and embarrassed with other people's judgements about them having an age gap relationship than I would have one more girl or young woman go through being sexually groomed in their late teens/early 20s by a man ~7+ years older than her.

I have not seen this website posted yet so gyns I am happy to present to you "The Grand Map of Non-Happenings"

All you have to do is zoom in and click on the red tent and it will tell you of a reported instance in that area of a crime committed by trans identified males (even though it totally never happens)

Best of all, it's crowdsourced, and you can submit articles not already listed right at the top of the map

Gyns I pray you make use of this website and to publicize and bring to attention of these crimes that "never happen". Share it, use it, whatever you need. And donate to The Red Tent Collective if you have the means to do so!

LGB stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bi. Why on earth would that be a tag for bigots and racists? Sexuality has nothing to do with race.

As to your question about trans people: sexuality is almost always based on a person's sex, not their gender identity. The reason for this distinction is that while sexuality and gender identity are technically both abstract concepts, sexuality is rooted in concrete physiological processes. What I mean to say is that when a human being is sexually attracted to another human being, there are concrete signs of it in their body (ranging everywhere from an increased heartrate/perspiration to an erection to the body self self lubricating).

Gender identity, on the other hand, has exactly zero concrete markers. Let me ask you this: is a trans woman still trans if she has a penis? How about facial hair? What about if she doesn't like to dress in feminine clothing and prefers short hair?

Now imagine the person I described above is an identical twin, but their twin still identifies as male. So both twins have short hair and facial hair, with looser fitting clothing, but one twin identifies as a trans woman and one does not. You cannot tell the twins apart much as their gender identity is one of the few things that is different about them. My guess is that anyone attracted to one of them on first glance would almost certainly be attracted to both of them, because they look exactly the same. So if a gay man is sexually attracted to the one who identifies as male, he is almost guaranteed to be attracted to the one who identifies as a trans woman. Does that now make the gay man straight? Bi? Why does the gender identity of one person affect the sexuality of another person?

This is the problem with using an abstract concept with no concrete markers as a basis of identity for who you are sexually attracted to: no one else can see the abstract concept. Which is why sexuality has always been rooted in a person's sex instead of their gender identity. Lesbian women are only attracted to other females, and they are not aroused by male genitalia. Gay men are only attracted to other males, and they are not aroused by female genitalia. And Bisexual people are attracted to men and women and can be aroused by either set of genitalia. This is something that can be scientifically tracked due to those concrete physiological markers and is in fact, the definition of sexuality.

Let me take my analogy one step farther just to prove the point: say the gay man in my scenario never actually meets these twins, just passes them in public and knows he feels sexually attracted to both of them when he sees them. By your logic, he would be considered bisexual because he was attracted to both a man and a trans woman, but his brain saw two people with short hair, facial hair, and loose fitting clothing who looked exactly the same, so he assumed they were both male. Thus, in his mind, he is still gay.

It's the idea that one person's identity should alter the sexuality of someone else that I have a problem with. Why does a random stranger's gender identity affect my sexuality? If I am dating a man who one day wakes up and feels they should identifying as trans, am I now in a lesbian relationship despite only exclusively being attracted to men my whole life? Do you see the problem with replacing sex with gender identity in the realm of sexuality? It simply doesn't work because it just becomes a tangled web of everyone having to announce their gender identity for people to know what their sexuality is. It makes a hell of a lot more sense to just use biological sex in regards to determining sexuality, don't you think?

You know those yard signs that are like "In this house we believe: climate change is science, no humans are illegal, gay rights are human rights" etc. and they basically just sum up the American liberal belief in one easy-to-read sign? I want one of those for radfem beliefs that just sums our talking points up. I'm thinking something along the lines of "In this house we know that:

-lgb rights are human rights

-feminism exists for the liberation of women

-abortion and contraception are healthcare

-hormone replacement and plastic surgery for the purpose of gender transition are NOT healthcare

-Pornography fuels the sex trafficking industry and both industries exploit women endlessly for male pleasure

Anyone else have additions?