NWLC’s Weekly Roundup: January 9-13

Welcome to another weekly roundup! A lot’s buzzing around the web this week, but below are some of the things that really caught our attention. After the jump, quick hits on the Student Non-Discrimination Act, an ABC exec’s thoughts on the new show, “Work It,” some truly terrible advertising already on (or about to hit) the airwaves, a new reproductive health measure in Brazil, and the Internet’s most well-spoken 13-year-old girl.

Senator Al Franken is continuing to gather support for his Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA), which would outlaw discrimination in public K-12 schools based on sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. He’s been trying to have SNDA included in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), and even though more than a third of the Senate supports his bill, more help is needed to have it passed.

Please take a moment to urge you senators to outlaw discrimination of LGBT students by include SNDA in the ESEA here.

Here’s a follow-up on another LGBT-related issue: late last year we told you about ABC’s inaccurate, offensive new show, “Work It.” Much has been said about the sitcom, (gossip blog Gawker went as far as to declare it the “the worst show on television”) especially its insensitivity to the transgender community. Not surprisingly,  a number of LGBT organization and activists are speaking out against it.

Yet despite this, ABC Entertainment exec Paul Lee just doesn’t get it. He even said so himself! “I didn’t really get it,” is exactly what he proclaimed at the Television Critics Tour earlier this week. He went on to say that ABC “thought there was room for a very very very silly show.” Sigh.

One of the commenters on our initial blog post on “Work It” summed up our feelings well: “This show is an affront to women in the workplace, those born women and those of us who were born in the wrong body and transitioned.”

Coming soon to a Super Bowl ad near you: graphic images of aborted fetuses (that is, if you’re “lucky” enough to live in one of several key primary election states). How exactly is anti-choice Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry able to get these ads on TV? Though an FCC loophole that you can read all about over on Mother Jones.

And speaking of awful advertising, remember that terrible commercial for Dr. Pepper 10, the soda with “10 manly calories” and the catchphrase “It’s Not For Women”? A Feministing reader recently wrote a letter to Dr. Pepper to complain about their sexist advertising, and lo and behold, the company has responded. Just not to, you know, apologize.

The soft-drink company’s customer relations rep (who points out in her response that she’s a woman) calls the advertising campaign “fun” and “a humorous take on the many men who are worried about their
waistlines but are too ‘manly’ to drink a diet soda.”

I have an idea for those worried about their waistline and the image they project while drinking diet soda: just cut soda out. I’m sure your doctor and your dentist will thank you.

I love this video from filmmaker Jesse Rosten that’s been circulating the web this week. From the lighting to the fonts to the voiceover, he nails the ridiculousness of beauty product commercials in his satire commercial for “Fotoshop by Adobé.” His piece is a take on the overuse of popular photo editing softwareAdobe Photoshop (the real reason why celebrities and models always looks un-humanly skinny, fit, tan, pore-less, etc) in  just about every single advertisement out there, especially in the beauty business.

Rosten’s video is below for you to watch – and he says it best in its caption: This commercial isn’t real, and neither are society’s standards of beauty.

I thought some of the increasingly restrictive positions on reproductive rights we’ve seen from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle here in America in recent years have been scary. But here’s something potentially worse: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff recently enacted legislation requiring mandatory registration of all pregnancies with the government. 

From RH Reality Check:

Provisionary Measure 557 (PM 557) created the National System of Registration, Vigilance and Monitoring Women’s Care during Pregnancy and Post Childbirth for the Prevention of Maternal Mortality (National Registration System).

[Rousseff] used a provisionary measure—intended only for urgent matters—that allows the president to pass a law without congressional approval. … Rousseff claims that PM 557 will address Brazil’s high rates of maternal mortality by ensuring better access, coverage and quality of maternal health care, notably for high-risk pregnancies.

Blogger Beatriz Galli goes on to point out that while it is good that the government wants to ensure healthy babies and mothers – both during and after pregnancy -- mandating registration is a violation of privacy. And according to Galli, the quality of public health care and health care facilities in Brazil is less than ideal –  in fact, “the majority of preventable maternal deaths actually take place in public hospitals.” Could this law end up hurting more women, especially poor women, women who live in rural areas or those who belong to minority groups?

Perhaps it’s just me, but I could see “mandatory registration” leading to “criminalizing miscarriage”  if it were implemented, say, here in America. Especially after all the attacks on choice we saw last year.

Lastly, this 13-year-old girl (13!!!) just became my favorite person on the Internet.

That’s all for this week! Any thoughts of your own or articles you’d like to share? Sound off in the comments!