NWLC’s Weekly Roundup: March 12 – 16

This week in our weekly roundup: a new documentary on bullying to air this weekend on Cartoon Network, Doonesbury on abortion in Texas, and the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

First up, I want to make sure you know that there’s a new documentary on bullying that will air on the Cartoon Network this weekend. Unlike Bully, the documentary that’s set to be released on March 30 (and is currently wrangling with the MPAA to have its rating dropped from R to PG-13), Cartoon Network’s Stop Bullying: Speak Up will air on television – making it very accessible to a wide audience.

The documentary features real stories from kids who’ve been bullied for a variety of reasons, so hopefully it will resonate with kids in school. It also features stories from some well-known people who advocate for ending bullying, including Cartoon Network’s CJ Manigo, Ali Sepasyar and Jackson Rogow, former NBA player Chris Webber, and pro BMX biker Matt Wilhelm. Bullying prevention expert Rosalind Wiseman will also answer questions before, during, and after the documentary airs.

Stop Bullying: Speak Up airs at both 5:30 and 8:00 pm EDT on Sunday, March 18. You can watch a preview of the documentary below. For more on bullying, check out some of our resources and be sure to sign up for our free March 22 webinar on what you can do to fight  bullying in your school.

If you’re like me, you probably don’t read comics – but you’ll want to read the six strips that make up this week’s story arc in Doonesbury. Author Garry Trudeau takes aim at the forced ultrasound law in Texas and similar laws that are being passed and debated in many states across the country. (I’ve written about some of the goings-on in Virginia in past weeks). And might I add that Texas, unlike Virginia, does have a forced transvaginal ultrasound law – it was signed last May by Governor Rick Perry.

Of course, this being a comic strip about abortion, it’s attracted some response. Some newspapers, including the LA Times, are moving Doonesbury to the op-end section for the week. Other newspapers are refusing to run it and instead are publishing old strips of the comic in its place.

If you’re interested in reading all of this week’s Doonesbury strips, here are links to each of the individual comics: March 12, March 13, March 14, March 15, and March 16. One more clip will be published tomorrow, which you should also be able to find on the Doonesbury website. Slate has also just posted a new interview with Garry Trudeau, in which he discusses more about his motivations to write this story arc.  

Also, I want to talk about the push in the Senate to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). In the wake of numerous uproars over contraceptive coverage and reproductive rights (seriously, there are too many to name them all here – Sandra Fluke, and then Rush Limbaugh, the Blunt Amendment, PRENDA, continued attacks on Planned Parenthood and so many more) the timing feels right for some to get a reauthorization passed – or  blocked.

As Nancy Kaufman of NCJW points out in her latest Huffington Post blog, VAWA was first passed back in 1994 with bipartisan support. It’s been reauthorized twice already, in 2000 and 2005. But now, like so many other issues pertaining to women’s health and well-being, VAWA is becoming pretty partisan. There are a  handful of Senators who have crossed the partisan line to support this year’s VAWA reauthorization (which does include some new provisions, such as efforts to make free legal assistance to domestic violence victims more accessible and protections for members of the LGBT community) but there are many more who oppose this legislation, and largely because of the new provisions.

It’s an interesting case – and certainly interesting to hear what some of the VAWA reauthorization opponents have to say about the matter, whether you agree with them or not. Read more on the Huffington Post and The New York Times.

Lastly, keep an eye out for info on our fifth annual Blog for Fair Pay Day! We’ll be hosting (with help from MomsRising) Blog for Fair Pay Day on April 17 and we’re working on a number of ways you can get involved – by blogging with us and joining the campaign on Facebook in Twitter. Keep checking back for details!

That’s all for this week! What have you been reading? Let us know by sharing a link in the comments or emailing it to me at djackson(at)nwlc(dot)org.