Free Republic

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has begged the Taliban to uphold women's rights after the Islamists toppled the government in Kabul amid fears that the country will once again become 'a breeding ground for terror.' 'I would just again implore those who made these moves in recent days to acknowledge what the international community has called for - human rights and the safety of their people,' she said at a news conference in the capital Wellington. 'What we want to see is women and girls being able to access work and education. These are things that have traditionally not...

The claims made by Russian media that NASA Astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor had a nervous breakdown and damaged a Russian spacecraft to get home are not credible, Kathy Lueders, who is leading NASA's human spaceflight program, said at a press conference on Friday. Russia's TASS recently published a story, citing an unnamed source in the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, that claimed Aunon-Chancellor had an emotional breakdown in space and she made a microfracture in the Russian spacecraft to return early during a mission in 2018. "Absolutely," Lueders said when asked whether NASA will defend its astronaut. "Our NASA crews perform their...

The real feminist revolution has yet to happen.Does abortion harm women? The question is posed and answered in a brief filed by Advancing American Freedom (AAF) and other “friends of the Court” in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case in which the Supreme Court could revisit its rulings in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.Together, Roe and Casey hold that there is an (effectively unfettered) constitutional right to an abortion. AAF’s answer is that Roe and Casey have shown a “disregard for the value of human life” that has caused substantial harms to society, and...

In the West suicide takes three to four times more male than female lives. Is feminism a factor? Will opening up discussion of this difficult topic help address the problem or should it remain taboo? I believe that freedom of speech works. But it isn't easy. A culture of silence and self-censorship surrounds difficult topics in Australia. So I turn to Free Republic to hear what other people who love freedom have to say .......

Over the past months, many states and the federal government have advised or even required individuals to wear masks in order to stop or slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Taking this relatively small step can significantly reduce the potential of virus transmission — serving as an effective way to protect both ourselves and others. Wearing a face covering of some sort seems like an easy choice to make for the greater good (provided, of course, that you do not have a disability that makes you unable to wear a mask). Yet this pandemic has illuminated another way in...

The biggest sources of sex stereotypes and strict gender roles are the trans movement and its allies, insisting girls who like 'boy' things must actually be boys.Sometimes transgender propaganda is too honest for its own good. For example, Loudoun Now, a weekly newspaper in Virginia’s Loudoun County, just ran a horrifying story encouraging gender dysphoria in children. The piece focuses on seven-year-old Sophia, now pretending to be a boy named Max, and her mother Emily (the unnamed father is almost entirely absent from the article). It was meant to boost transgender ideology in an area that has become a battleground...

Leftist billionaire George Soros is at it again. His organization pledged $100 million to spread radical feminist ideas across the globe. The Open Society Foundations (OSF) announced June 30 that they would “invest more than $100 million over the next five years in strengthening a range of feminist-led movements and increasing their leadership across a broad range of sectors.” These “gender justice” sectors included anything “from politics and the private sector to civil society and government.” The announcement noted that “[t]he majority of the funding will help strengthen feminist organizations and funds around the world.” Soros celebrated the announcement on...

The fly-over woman understands her womanhood and motherhood deep in her bones and doesn’t see maleness as a goal to achieve or person to conquer.Adherents of radical feminism are five decades into a powerful campaign that seeks to shape the way American women think. Politics, fashion, Hollywood, academia, and media propagate a singular vision of womanhood, relying on savvy use of optics, messaging, and even make-up. These radical feminists have done a remarkable job of silencing or sidelining their critics. Ironically, whether they know it or not, feminists’ unspoken premise insists men are superior to women and women must become...

The tweet was directed at fellow soccer player Natasha Kai, who is Asian.Megan Rapinoe, one of the most outspoken as well as decorated members of the U.S. women’s national soccer team, is under scrutiny and even facing cancelation calls after a decade-old tweet of hers was unearthed. The tweet, still up on Monday morning despite the backlash surrounding it, was directed at fellow soccer player Natasha Kai, who is Asian. “u look asian with those closed eyes!” Rapinoe wrote in May of 2011 in response to a now-deleted tweet. Some on Twitter saw the tweet as mocking Kai and being...

As a result of its latest round of elections, the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the body that directs the Oscars’ strategic vision, is now made up of 31 women and 23 men, the academy announced on Monday. It is the first time that the board has a female majority in the academy’s 94-year history. Actor Rita Wilson, documentary editor and producer Jean Tsien and composer Lesley Barber are among the women newly elected to the board of governors. The number of people of color has also reached new record levels through...

For all the trumpeting of women’s rights, leftist policies frequently demean, disempower, or even endanger women.Everyone knows the political left disdains men — at least, white heterosexual men who aren’t confused about their sex. But it also has a serious misogyny problem. For all the trumpeting of women’s rights, leftist policies frequently demean, disempower, or even endanger women.Women are expected to shoulder burdens not imposed on men, all to promote what’s touted as a greater public good. Besides, is there anything more dismissive and denigrating of women’s value and humanity than referring to them as “menstruators,” “birthing units,” or “uterus...

I believe femininity to be a lost art. Indeed, it is an art. Femininity is in stark contrast to feminism in that it requires care, finesse, and confidence in who you were created to be to achieve it. Feminism, not so much. I find femininity to be effortless. Unlike the constant and incessant haranguing of feminists to prove their place in the world, women who are feminine present no such display of posturing. The differences between femininity and feminism are, in my humble opinion, obvious; however, for those who remain confounded by its mystique, indulge me in this “Compare and...

Last month, former Dean of Students Lee Burdette Williams wrote a piece on her own Medium page about a weekend that changed her life back in 2016. Williams says she was invited to a weekend gathering by a group she had never heard of before called FACE. Essentially it was a group composed of parents whose sons had been accused of sexual assault on a college campus. But these parents believed their kids were being badly abused by a system that didn’t seem to have any place for the kind of rights of the accused found in our justice system....

In the wake of sex scandals that have rocked the British charity, an Oxfam staff training document says “privileged white women” are supporting the root causes of sexual violence by wanting “bad men” imprisoned. The Telegraph reports that the four-week ‘learning journey’ states that: “Mainstream feminism centres on privileged white women and demands that ‘bad men’ be fired or imprisoned”. Accompanied by a cartoon of a crying white woman, it adds that this “legitimises criminal punishment, harming black and other marginalised people”. The PowerPoint recommends staff read Me Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism, a book by Alison Phipps,...

"Gender Identity Requires Gender Stereotyping In the prehistoric 1990s, my parents taught me that there was no wrong way to be a girl. Today, if a girl dislikes the color pink and prefers trucks to dolls, she’s told that womanhood is not for her but that we can fix wrong girls at the gender clinic. In just three decades, the vision of womanhood in which girls can be anything has been replaced by a medical protocol to fix girls who are not girly enough. We block their puberty with cancer drugs, flood them with testosterone, and give them hysterectomies and...

SNIPPart of her road to recovery is federal compensation that will cover her extensive medical bills. She wants to see a federal compensation system that is fair to her and others who suffer rare complications from COVID-19 vaccines. The only current option for people who suffer COVID-19 vaccine injuries is the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program, a system known for turning most applicants down. Since 2010, the program has received 701 requests for compensation and granted financial benefits to 29 people. Currently, 210 of those claims are pending, according to data updated on April 1 by the program.As of Wednesday, the...

Dads are taking parenting much more seriously. But according to a new study of sitcoms, the stereotype of the foolish father remains stubbornly in place. From Homer Simpson to Phil Dunphy, sitcom dads have long been known for being bumbling and inept. But it wasn’t always this way. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, sitcom dads tended to be serious, calm and wise, if a bit detached. In a shift that media scholars have documented, only in later decades did fathers start to become foolish and incompetent. And yet the real-world roles and expectations of fathers have changed in recent...

It was 1969. Kate invited me to join her for a gathering at the home of her friend, Lila Karp. They called the assemblage a “consciousness-raising-group,” a typical communist exercise, something practiced in Maoist China. We gathered at a large table as the chairperson opened the meeting with a back-and-forth recitation, like a Litany, a type of prayer done in Catholic Church. But now it was Marxism, the Church of the Left, mimicking religious practice:“Why are we here today?” she asked. “To make revolution,” they answered. “What kind of revolution?” she replied. “The Cultural Revolution,” they chanted. “And how do...

Honeymooners Kisser Disser May 16th, 2019 – Catchphrases can often become as iconic on a television show as the characters themselves. Lucy Ricardo had some splainin’ to do. Arnold Drummond wanted to know what Willis was talkin’ ’bout. Joey Tribbiani wanted to know how all the ladies were doin’. And while most catchphrases are pretty harmless, some are harder to swallow (that’s what she said). On The Honeymooners, Ralph Kramden had a couple catchphrases solely for his wife, Alice. Fed up with her misgivings about his latest get-rich-quick schemes he would lean in, raise his fist and shout ”One of...

Former President Trump on Wednesday celebrated the removal of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from her role in House GOP leadership. Trump derided Cheney in personal terms in a statement following a vote to oust her as House Republican Conference chair over her repeated criticisms of the former president and his frequent, unproven claims about the 2020 election. "Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being. I watched her yesterday and realized how bad she is for the Republican Party," Trump said in a statement, referencing a speech in which Cheney vowed she would not remain silent about Trump's election lies....