I want to take this moment to reflect and recognize this very important day for women worldwide. Today (Yesterday), women around the world celebrated the achievements they have made in their struggle for power and recognition that has been waged for hundreds of years. In South America, we witnessed a change and attitudinal shift in both women’s and society’s thoughts about women’s equality and emancipation. In Argentina, the people spoke and elected Cristina Fernández de Kirchner making her the first woman to be elected president in Argentina’s history. In 2006, in Chile, Michelle Bachelet became the first woman president. And in Africa, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf made history by becoming Africa’s first elected female head of state and Liberia’s first elected female president. Fernández de Kirchner, Bachelet, Johnson Sirleaf and millions of women like them in many parts of the world have begun celebrating a new song of power, liberty, and justice.

However, the harsh realities in the day-to-day struggles of women can never be minimized or overlooked. Violence affects the lives of millions of women worldwide. It continues to be a global epidemic that kills, tortures, and maims – physically, psychologically, sexually and economically. In Pakistan, the year ended with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The death of “The Rose of Pakistan” marked a dark day in Pakistan’s history.

Recently, it was reported that a young mother in London was drugged, repeatedly raped for hours in front of her screaming children. The horrible ordeal was later posted on YouTube for the world to see. The three-minute clip of her ordeal was later removed from YouTube after a local reporter complained about its graphic nature. And we must not forget, Megan Meier, the 13 year-old girl who hung herself last year after being bullied on MySpace.

I had a hard time writing this post because I wanted to do this post justice. I wanted to express how grateful I am not only to my mother and my sister, but also to all of the women who have touched my life personally and professionally. As I was looking up the links I wanted to up for this post, I happen to come across this power picture on a post about International Women’s Day, by Adil Najam from All Things Pakistan. She was moved by the photo because “[t]here is both dignity and determination in the posture of this young woman as she tries to cross the road.” I couldn’t agree more!

After reading his post, it gave me pause to reflect on current state of affairs in this country and how sexist, misogynist, patriarchal ways of thinking and behaving can still seen in the prevailing values in our society, values created and sustained by a system dominated by patriarchy. Najam wrote:

For me, here is a woman who is not waiting for someone to ‘help’ her cross the road. She is not demanding any special treatment. Not waiting for assistance. Not invoking the chuvinism of the men around her. She is ready, prepared, even eager, to overcome whatever hurdles come in her way.

While there are some who feel the only way we can move towards a society that is color-blind, rational, humanist place where a common good will overpower narrow self-interest choosing to live in the past or move forward for a better future. The truth is, the only way this can come about is not only having the willingness to listen and the willingness to bring down the current power structure.

I was reminded of a passage from Paolo Friere’s classic Pedagogy of the Oppressed:

The oppressor is in solidarity with the oppressed only when he stops regarding the oppressed as an abstract category and sees them as persons who have been unjustly dealt with, deprived of their voice, cheated in the sale of their labor – when he stops making pious, sentimental, and individualistic gestures and risks an act of love. True solidarity is found only in the plenitude of this act of love… To affirm that men and women are persons and as persons should be free, and yet to do nothing tangible to make this affirmation a reality, is a farce.

Such “acts of love” are possible. Being Latino, not only do I have an insight in identifying racist behavior taking place within the Latina/o community but also, I am also able to identify the subtle sexist behavior that also takes place because, as a male, I understand the male privilege that has been given to me by society’s patriarchal rules. Although there are some who assume by not being involved in the oppression of women that should be enough, but the reality is, that is nothing more but passivity. As bell hooks once said, “if we don’t change our own consciousness, we cannot change our own actions or demand change from others.”

Happy International Womens Day.

In this country, the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any industrialized world; and in Texas the state has the highest teen pregnancy rates (63 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19) in the nation, according to a newly released study of children’s health, according to a recent research report, KIDS COUNT Data Book, issued by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Way to go Texas, we not only lead the nation in imprisoning its citizens, it also has the highest incarceration in the country and the world, and now, we can add the state with the highest teen birth rates.

Sadly, Texas achieved this title in 2003 and it seems nothing really changed in 2004. More concerning, Texas surpasses the National average of 41 births per 1,000 teens nearly by 20 points. According to the National Vital Statistics Reports, in 2003, the number of teen births in Texas was 51,091.

Even though Texas has seen a decline in the number of teen births, apparently this was not enough to lower our ranking. One reason, according to Frances Deviney of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, Texas has a high rate of Hispanics, (35 percent of Texas population) they tend to have more teen mothers than other groups. What exactly did she mean by this statement? Unfortunately, we cannot blame the media for misquoting her; it is a statement she also made on a press release. The reason this concerns me, one can assume that the basis teen pregnancy is high among young Latinas is because they are hyper sexualized, a stereotype that continues to plague Latinas as being voluptuous, sexy, morena, vixen, exotic, and sensual, in other words, a hot mamacita with an insatiable appetite for sex.

The problem with stereotypes, it forces people to live out their lives in accordance with these extremely pervasive roles. Therefore, statements such as these continue to seep into the collective public sub-conscience causing us to believe that Latinas do have a large sexual appetite where they are ready to hop into bed at the site of a man. However, the facts do not support myths. According to a study published by the National Center for Health Statistics, it was found that Latinas 15-17 years of age are less likely to have sex than their non-Hispanic black or white counterparts.

The same is true for 18-19 year olds. In the first age group 30% of non-Hispanic white girls, 41% of non-Hispanic black girls, and 25% of Hispanic girls report having had sexual intercourse with a male. In the second age group 68% of non-Hispanic white girls, 77% of non-Hispanic black girls, and 59% of Hispanic girls report having done so (p. 24). And, of those girls who had had sex in the previous four weeks, 19% of non-Hispanic white girls had had sex 4 or more times in that period compared with 13% for both black girls and Hispanic girls.

While teen pregnancy and birth rates have declined in the Latina/o community, the reality remains that one in two Latina teens (51%) are still getting pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20, according to the National Campaign Latino Initiative. That is nearly twice the national average. Why is there such a difference between higher pregnancy and birth rates and less sexual activity? The reasons behind why Latina teens get pregnant are both complicated and numerous. One thing is for sure, the old methods of advising a young female adolescent to “put a penny between your knees and keep it their” is ill advice and so is “sexual silence.”

It is important to recognize that teen pregnancy is both a cause and consequence of poverty. That is, high rates of Latina teen pregnancy and childbearing reflect in part the existing disadvantage and limited opportunities for many in the Latina/o community. It is important to understand that many Latina youth are at high risk for teen pregnancy due to the same factors as other minority youth, such as socioeconomic status and educational attainment. However, it is also vitally important to understand that there are other risk factors that contribute. These factors tend to be related cultural reasons, such as acculturation, family values, attitudes about motherhood, religion, and traditional gender roles. It is easy to tout off stats on the dangers of teen pregnancy, for some it does make a difference, but enough to curb this issue. To get to heart of the matter, we must have a firm understanding how these cultural risk factors play a role because it is these factors that influence the level of knowledge or lack of knowledge one possesses about sex and contraceptives.

Why Young Latinas Get Pregnant
In a study done by the National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy, found that Latina teen mothers aged 15-17, about one in four had a partner who is at least five years older. I used to work at a community center and I was amazed to see the number of young teen mothers coming in to seek services. When the counselors would talk to them, they would find out that many of them engaged in sexual activity with men who were several years older. It seems common within the Latina/o community; studies have also this type of behavior among Latinas.

Some studies have found that teens that do have romantic partners that are three or more years older are less likely to use contraception, are more likely to report later that they didn’t really want to have sex in the first place, and increased their chances of becoming pregnant as a teen. It is important to understand how patriarchal gender roles tends to be a big influence in developing these types of relationships. It is known that in the Latino community, men are held to different standards of sexual behavior than women, where men have an arrogant view that they are responsible for making decisions about whether to use birth control.

Other reasons for teen pregnancy include insufficient or medically inaccurate sex education, improper or lack of use of contraception, the influence of the media, attitudes about sexuality, and limited access to contraception and family planning services. Religion may play a role in why Latina teens do or do not get pregnant, depending on if teens and/or their families adhere to religious views about abstinence, contraception, and abortion. Second, third, and fourth generation Latino youth, however, may not identify as strongly with religious beliefs, hence the influence of religion may not be great among certain teens.

Characteristics of Effective Pregnancy Prevention Programs
If we really are serious about curbing teen pregnancy, it definitely will not be done through Bush’s “Abstinence-Only” Program. Even though the Latino heritage is a rich and diverse, it is not monolithic. The Latino culture in the US varies not only by country of origin, but by regions and ethnicities within those countries. Yet, there are some common values among many cultural heritages. Some of these core values can be used to great effect when designing or implementing prevention programs in Latino communities.

The foundation of an effective program should be built on a core set of values shared by many Latina/o cultures. These are familismo, colectivismo, and respeto. Building on that foundation, an effective program targeting Latinas/os must be clear and consistent, age-appropriate information, reinforce cultural values, educate parents, involve the community, include young males as well as females, and take into account youths place of origin, generational status, and language preference.

We must also keep in mind there is no such thing as a generic Latina/o youth. There are varying levels of Spanish language usage, different cultural traditions and values, an urban Tejana/o will have a different set of values from a Tejana/o from the Valle or from Califas and so on. There are also different levels of perceived discrimination, degrees of political organization, and social and economic dislocation among Latino subgroups

A “one-size fits all approach” is not the solution. The approaches tend to stereotype community members and their needs, in the end, waste valuable resources by designing inappropriate prevention efforts, and inadvertently neglect of the needs of specific groups in the community.

As Tejana/os we must do better, as Latin@s/Xican@s, we have to do better.

A strange thing happened to me the day the House of Representatives voted to pass the Iraq-war-funding bill. Congresswoman Jane Harman of California called as the debate was taking place. “Look, I would love to have cast a vote against Bush on this,” she told me. “We need a new strategy, and I hope we can force one in September. But I flew into Baghdad [with 150 young soldiers recently]. To vote against this bill was to vote against giving them the equipment… they need. I couldn’t do that.” I posted what Harman said on Swampland, the political blog at Time.com, along with my opinion that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had changed their positions and voted against the funding for the worst possible reason: presidential politics.

And then Harman changed her position. After we spoke, she voted against the funding. The next day, I was blasted by a number of left-wing bloggers: Klein screwed up! I had quoted Harman in the past tense—common usage for politicians who know their words will appear after a vote takes place. That was sloppy and… suspicious! Proof that you just can’t trust the mainstream media. On Eschaton, a blog that specializes in media bashing, I was given the coveted “Wanker of the Day” award. Eventually, Harman got wind of this and called, unbidden, to apologize for misleading me, saying I had quoted her correctly but she had changed her mind to reflect the sentiments of her constituents. I published her statement and still got hammered by bloggers and Swampland commenters for “stalking” Harman into an apology, for not checking her vote in the Congressional Record, for being a “water boy for the right wing” and many other riffs unfit to print.

But the smart stuff is being drowned out by a fierce, bullying, often witless tone of intolerance that has overtaken the left-wing sector of the blogosphere. Anyone who doesn’t move in lockstep with the most extreme voices is savaged and ridiculed – especially people like me who often agree with the liberal position but sometimes disagree and are therefore considered traitorously unreliable. Some of this is understandable: the left-liberals in the blogosphere are merely aping the odious, disdainful – and politically successful – tone that right-wing radio talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh pioneered. They are also justifiably furious at a Bush White House that has specialized in big lies and smear tactics.

And that is precisely the danger here. Fury begets fury. Poison from the right-wing talk shows seeped into the Republican Party’s bloodstream and sent that party off the deep end. Limbaugh’s show—where Dick Cheney frequently expatiates—has become the voice of the Republican establishment. The same could happen to the Democrats.

Klein’s main point is that he is concerned that “the left-liberals in the blogosphere are merely aping the odious, disdainful – and politically successful – tone that right-wing radio talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh pioneered.” I feel Klein’s observation of the so-called progressive blogosphere is very accurate. The blogosphere has become more of a place where one can find hate-filled rhetoric in the land of he said-she said. Before I go on, I like to make this clear. I do understand that Joe Klein is somewhat of a hypocrite in a “pot calling the kettle black” kind of way. But this post is not about Klein, the purpose of this post is the subject of his article – the hate-filled rhetoric that has dominated the left.

The sad reality of it all, there are people on the Left who do attack others not because they disagree with their point of view, but who actually enjoy watching the other person crumble with fear. And those who are committing these offenses are not realizing the sense of despair that is being felt throughout the certain communities and communities of color who are attempting to navigate through this crazy world of ours towards a more just society. Because of this, I am compelled to speak out on the realities that are taking place in the liberal blogosphere.

I find it ironic that Klein’s article came out during the recent Brittney Gilbert vs. Jesus General dust up. I have written and rewritten this post so many times it is not funny. I had planned to provide a full break down on the sequence of events on how we got to this mess we are in now, but something inside me kept me from doing it. I just did not feel right. Instead, I will just speak from the heart. For those who would like a good break down, check out Jim McCulloch’s post, “The strange case of General Patriotboy and his lynch mob,” at Stone Bridge. I think, his post is well balanced and easy to follow. What really bothered me about all this, the whole debate was intertwined with racist and misogynistic remarks that would make any causal observer feel like they were watching an old Jerry Springer episode. Even worse was the people’s inability to step back from their A-list hero-worshiping and look at the bigger picture. In retrospect, the dispute represents the current patriarchal and racially based social structure.

While Brittney Gilbert, who used to blog for Nashville is Talking meant well as tried to expose the racist tendencies of a known blogger called Smantix by posting an excerpt of his post – Teaching Libs a Lesson – that denigrated the recently deceased liberal blogger Steve Gilliard, she unwittingly reinforced racism. Granted she did posts a lot of stuff without much comment, in which many of her readers (both new and regular readers) would have to have common sense or the initiative to figure out the context and meaning of the post themselves. However, Gilbert had already set precedence by commenting on stuff done by Smantix and his views in the past and unfortunately, she neglected to do so this time and this is how she unwittingly reinforced racism. Racism is a system that values whites over people of color and therefore, it is arrogant to assume that every reader of any blog will get the “subtlety” of every headline or every post written. For example, suppose I were to move to Nashville and I wanted to know about the local blog scene around my new town, being a minority, it would have been easy for me to assume there was an Anti-African American tinge to that blog. However, this doesn’t mean Gilbert is a racist, it would be an error for me to judge her based on this one post. Unfortunately, in this sound-bite world of ours, this is how people are judged.

Here is where I have the biggest problem; it has to do with the way Gilbert was treated. Not only was it misogynist, but also it was a total reinforcement of the patriarchal and racially based social structure we live in. Patriarchy is the single most life-threatening social disease that is assaulting the male body and spirit in our nation. As pro-feminist male, it is more than just recognizing it, but a need to speak out against it because mere recognition of an injustice being done is not enough to end it.

As Paolo Friere wrote in his classic Pedagogy of the Oppressed:

The oppressor is in solidarity with the oppressed only when he stops regarding the oppressed as an abstract category and sees them as persons who have been unjustly dealt with, deprived of their voice, cheated in the sale of their labor – when he stops making pious, sentimental, and individualistic gestures and risks an act of love. True solidarity is found only in the plenitude of this act of love… To affirm that men and women are persons and as persons should be free, and yet to do nothing tangible to make this affirmation a reality, is a farce.

Such “acts of love” are possible. Being Latino, not only do I have an insight in identifying racist behavior taking place within the Latina/o community but also, I am also able to identify the subtle sexist behavior that also takes place because, as a male, I understand the male privilege that has been given to me by society’s patriarchal rules. Although there are some who assume by not being involved in the oppression of women that should be enough, but the reality is, that is nothing more but passivity. As bell hooks once said, “if we don’t change our own consciousness, we cannot change our own actions or demand change from others.”

In a recent conversation with Brownfemipower about ally building, she pointed out how the Zapatista movement was redefining the rigid gender roles that are put on men and women. The way this came about was the willingness to listen and bring down the sexist power structure. After listening to Marcela Lagarde, a Mexican feminist scholar and a former member of Mexico’s House of Representatives (2003-2006), on the marginalization of women in revolutionary movements in Latin America, subcomandante Marcos contacted Feminist International Radio Endeavour (FIRE), a woman-produced radio/Internet broadcasting station, who put him in touch with Lagarde. After the two finished talking, Lagarde agreed to serve as their Gender Advisor to the movement. It is this type of ally building I feel Brownfemipower was talking about and one that we, as men, should model after.

The discriminatory practices within the progressive blogosphere have its roots in a male-dominated culture society. This patriarchal culture does not tolerate freedom and democracy or equal rights of men and women, because it would threaten their leadership position. What really broke my heart was reading comments after comments of people both men and women pulling out the lowest blows they could muster in an effort to shut Britney and her allies up. It clearly showed that they had little empathy for women. The minute JG sent his letter to her bosses and to the sponsors; it became misogynistic because it was for the purpose to damage Gilbert’s reputation. They did nothing more but took the focus off her pain and placed it onto JG. As a male, it was his privilege to have all the attention on his pain. During that week, JG and his followers felt they had done nothing wrong in what they did to Britney – as it was no big deal, but what do not understand, it is they who took her power away, her voice, and her personhood. In the end, JG is still employed while the other is not. Just because she resigned that does not take away the fact that the onslaught heavily influenced her decision.

How are their actions any different from the people who damaged the reputation of the woman who was unable to get a job because of the online postings that contained offensive content and personal attacks on her? What about Kathy Sierra who canceled her speaking engagements because she was afraid to leave her house? Or Jill Filipovic of Feministe and her situation with AutoAdmin? Or Brownfemipower? Or nubian? or MarisaCat? Or the thousands of women who are vilified by their allies and non-allies in public and who have no shame in making violent threats against them? NOT A FUCKING GOD DAMN THING!

I have been involved in politics for a long time and I have been using the Internet back in 1992. In those 10+ years, nothing has changed when it comes to attacking women on the Internet. It is easy to dismiss all this as being BS and state that people should find a way to grow a tougher skin and just accept the fact that we live in a world full of mudslinging and vitriol. Do we really want to live in a heartless world where people become indifferent with one another?

The reality is words and ideas are damaging, no matter how tough someone claims to be. The attacks from the left border on the edge what the folks on the right have no problem doing. When it comes to attacking female bloggers, it is easy to hide behind the keyboard to begin their onslaught on the female psyche as they attack a woman’s physical appearance and sexuality. Worse, are the attacks by men on their self-worth as to why they are still single or, why their relationships are failing with overt misogynistic comments on how “ugly” they are to get a man or how they are too pretty to be taken seriously or how they should “put out” more for their husbands or boyfriends. When that does not work, it becomes easy for us to start labeling them a bitch, whore, vendida, traitor, cunts, ho, ugly.

While it is easy for people like progressive male bloggers like Markos Mousilitas (Daily Kos) to tell women to “develop a thicker skin,” one must really have to wonder about this line of thinking. The problem I have with this line of thinking, people become emotionless and non-caring on issues that should have our attention. As a result, these issues are always kept at a distance. If we don’t see them, they no longer have to care. Truthfully, we are a society that suffers from severe emotional repression. For example, as of this writing, this country has already murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings in a foreign country, it has already imprisoned another hundred of thousands in concentration camps in this country and yet we all know this, but nobody bats an eyelash. We are destroying not only our souls, but also our physical, emotional, and intellectual infrastructure of which we are a part and cannot live without.

It is bad enough men are raised to not to display emotions, now we are forcing women to do same as we tell them to “grow a thicker skin.” By developing this “thicker skin,” all we are doing is maintaining the emotional repression with the intention of denying our deep feelings of hurt and pain, and left to express them through anger and rage. As long as we shield ourselves from actually feeling, we are preventing ourselves from walking a journey of full honesty with all our personal and structural relationships.

By minimize their efforts by asserting a perceived authority about what is considered “right” and “wrong” ways to draw attention to the issues we as people face is not only sexist, but oppressive, especially when it is done by men.

So those who continue to the silence of women and yet glorify democracy is nothing more but a hypocrite and it is they who are hurting our movement, not those who are the voice of the thousands of women who are forced to be silent.