Free Republic

French President Francois Hollande has chosen a controversial Ukrainian feminist known for her topless protests as the new incarnation of Marianne, one of France's national emblems, in a move that is drawing mixed reactions. Hollande chose July 14 -- Bastille Day, the country's most popular national holiday -- to unveil a new stamp inspired by Femen movement leader Inna Shevchenko. It is the first time a foreign woman has been picked to represent Marianne. One of the stamp's creators, French artist and gay-rights activist Oliver Ciappa, confirmed on Twitter that his Marianne was based chiefly on 23-year-old Shevchenko.... Shevchenko said...

EDMONTON – A so-called “men’s rights” group is defending its recent poster campaign that is sparking national outrage for claiming some women lie about being raped. The posters were a response to the ‘Don’t be that guy” campaign that aims to educate young men on alcohol’s role in sexual assault and define consensual sex. Men’s Rights Edmonton issued a statement on its website taking responsibility for its “Don’t be that girl” campaign that was highly criticized by police, city officials and women’s groups for sending the wrong message. “Just because you regret a one night stand doesn’t mean it wasn’t...

AUSTIN, TX, July 12, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A writer for the feminist magazine Cosmopolitan has suggested women might throw menstrual blood on Texas state senators meeting to pass stronger health regulations for the state's abortion facilities. For a while this afternoon, security officers at the state capitol in Austin confiscated tampons and maxi pads from everyone entering the chamber after pro-abortion demonstrators reportedly threatened to pelt legislators with feminine hygiene products as they debated H.B. 2 on Friday afternoon. They also held energy bars and other potential projectiles. CNN's Josh Rubin reports that security personnel have since stopped confiscating unopened...

A new bill that limits the murder of the unborn to 20-weeks and requires abortion clinics to meet basic medical standards has been officially filed in the Texas State House. HB 2 declares that the state has an obligation to protect the unborn. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, called a second special session of the Texas legislature to pass the late-term abortion ban bill. “I am calling the Legislature back into session because too much important work remains undone for the people of Texas. Through their duly elected representatives, the citizens of our state have made crystal clear their priorities...

Furious feminist backlash after Bank of England announced plans to replace image of Elizabeth Fry with Winston Churchill on £5 notes The decision to choose Sir Winston Churchill to feature on the new £5 note has sparked a furious backlash from feminist campaigners. The wartime Prime Minister will replace the image of prison reformer Elizabeth Fry on the new-look note will which start circulation in 2016. But the move has led to an online petition and a group of 46 MPs and peers yesterday asking for the decision to be reviewed.

Joan Walsh needs a significant other in her life, or maybe a dog. Whatever she needs, she needs it soon. Her continued, perpetual outrage over former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is producing enough hot air to cause real climate change. Walsh writes for Salon. That sounds like a magazine about hair and manicures, but the name may be a nod to the oh-so-sophisticated gatherings of the 19th century’s idle elites to pose and discuss the deep issues of the day for their own amusement. “Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Bonapartes. But I...

In 2011, a little boy became the victim of gay adoption laws. Perhaps he was difficult to adopt due to having a substantial speech impediment and only began communicating at age three with sign language. This is the vulnerable population of children that are considered ‘un-adoptable’, perhaps. These are the poor children whom the gay community say they are ‘rescuing’ from adoption homes. These are the children that are being experimented on by our Godless society today. “Let’s see if two lesbians or two gay men can raise a child as well as a proper male/female married couple. This grand...

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, May 11, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – This Sunday, children of all ages will celebrate the role mothers play in their lives. But Vogue model Christy Turlington Burns and a host of female celebrities are encouraging mothers across the nation to ignore their children as part of “No Mother’s Day,” a sign of their support for reducing maternal mortality by supporting family planning and global access to abortion. The campaign asks women to “disappear” on Mother’s Day to raise awareness of maternal mortality rates and underscore “just how much a mother is missed when she’s gone.” But amidst positive...

EUGENE, Ore. -- Dozens of moms spent their Mother's Day marching against gun violence. The 14th annual Million Mom March in Eugene stepped off from EWEB Waterfront Plaza Sunday afternoon. Before the march, Mayor Kitty Piercy and other women spoke about the need for stricter gun laws. Betsy Steffensen helped organize Eugene’s march, and said the event gives moms the power to make a huge change in the world.

Domestic violence is not one-sided, Professor Murray Straus of the University of New Hampshire told Arutz Sheva on Monday. Straus participated at the two-day conference entitled "Violence, Conflicts and Unity in Family Context: A Reappraisal of Therapeutic and Judicial Doctrines." The conference is being held at the Ariel University. Video “The bottom line is that in domestic violence, about the same percentage of women assault their partners as men,” he said. “Women are more often injured, but that doesn’t change the fact that women attack as often as men.” Prof. Straus admitted that he’s been censored in the past for...

A jury on Monday convicted a woman who was accused of drugging her estranged husband before severing his penis and tossing it in the garbage disposal. Jurors found Catherine Kieu guilty of torture and aggravated mayhem for the July 11, 2011, attack. Sentencing was scheduled for June 28. "This woman went to extreme lengths to destroy this man's manhood by placing it in the garbage disposal," Deputy District Attorney John Christl said in an interview after the verdict. "She did this out of vengeance, vanity and jealousy." During trial, the 60-year-old victim testified that his penis could not be reattached...

I’ve had this photo from The Daily Caller up in my browser for days, ever since Vince Coglianese ran it, as it just keeps popping back into my mind. The photo comes from a speaking appearance by Belgian Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard in Brussels, which Femen targeted for a protest against what it calls “hate” and homophobia in the Catholic Church. I keep looking at this picture … and see hate, but not where Femen does: "A group of naked women bum-rushed Belgian Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard while he was speaking in Brussels and doused him with water from bottles shaped like...

Why topless protesters will hound Islamic leaders (CNN) -- For the past five years now, we here at the international women's movement Femen have been waging an active campaign of resistance to the patriarchy in various corners of the world. We have been bringing the world the simple idea of women's liberation by means of sexual emancipation as expressed in highly visible acts of political protest. We believe that the enslavement of women began with the enslavement of their sexuality, so we therefore consider it legitimate to use their liberated sexuality as a symbol of women's worldwide liberation. We divide...

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- A Southern California woman yelled “You deserve it” before severing her estranged husband’s penis with a 10-inch kitchen knife and throwing it in a garbage disposal, a prosecutor said Wednesday in opening statements at her trial. Catherine Kieu, 50, is accused of drugging her estranged husband’s tofu with sleeping pills and tying him to a bed before the attack, the Orange County Register reported. The prosecution alleges that Kieu was motivated by jealousy, and that she was angry about her husband’s plans to divorce her because he was seeing his ex-girlfriend.

A few salient facts are known about the Americans whose lives might be changed by a Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage expected this summer. About one in five gay and lesbian couples are raising children that are under age 18. Same-sex couples are less likely than traditional married couples to have health insurance covering them both. One in 10 men with a male partner or spouse is a military veteran. As many as 6 million Americans, roughly 2 percent of the population, have a parent who is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. These nuggets of demographic insight into same-sex...

For girls born after women were appointed to the Supreme Court, "Makers: Women Who Make America" is a history lesson. The three-hour special that airs at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, on PBS is naturally not just for younger women. It is for everyone — those who relished victories whenever women won higher office, experienced fury when colleagues made sexual advances or were frustrated when schools allocated money only for boys sports. It's for males and females — those who suffered the indignities and fought to change the world and those for whom the ERA is only a baseball stat....

Wait, so the academy fired Brett Ratner from his gig as Oscars producer for making sexist and crude comments, but then, as Vulture’s Kyle Buchanan smartly points out, allowed host Seth MacFarlane to make “that kind of un-PC humor the cornerstone of his whole act.” BuzzFeed has rounded up the nine most sexist moments of Sunday’s Oscars, including MacFarlane’s sophomoric “boob” song. And New York Magazine transcribed the most offensive barbs, in case you want to relive the horror. …

Ms. Magazine tweeted this on January 28… … linking to this post on its blog: She was 14 years old and going into the 9th grade. From the moment she learned she was pregnant, she contemplated what to do. Not comprehending how to even deliver a baby (let alone how to take care of a child for the rest of her life) prompted grave fears about her future. Being the eldest of an immigrant family of seven, she learned early to take on the role of her family’s translator and primary caretaker. She could not fathom how she would tell...

Fewer young men in the US want to get married than ever, while the desire for marriage is rising among young women, according to the Pew Research Center. Pew recently found that the number of women 18-34 saying that having a successful marriage is one of the most important things rose from 28 percent to 37 percent since 1997. The number of young adult men saying the same thing dropped from 35 percent to 29 percent in the same time. Pew’s findings have caught the attention of one US writer who maintains that feminism, deeply entrenched in every segment of...

In early December the independent and very liberal National Catholic Reporter weekly newspaper published a long, carefully reasoned editorial declaring that “The Ordination of Women Would Correct an Injustice.” If the Church were deliberately perpetrating an injustice in the matter of ordination, of course, it would be a serious matter. The NCR editorial was a response to the earlier “excommunication, dismissal, and laicization” of Roy Bourgeois, who as a Maryknoll priest had long and defiantly—and in spite of numerous warnings—engaged in what was officially described as a “campaign against the teachings of the Catholic Church”—he repeatedly and obstinately engaged in...