This week we are talking about the field of home economics or domestic science. Was it really a science? To what extent was it a marketing exercise? Can it ever really overcome its founding racist and classist overtones? Does home economics even exist anymore?
Links and note for ep. 468 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/AFD-Ep-468-Links-and-Notes-Home-Economics_Domestic-Science.pdf
Opening music by Stunt Bird.
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Bill and Rachel discuss syringes, morphine, laudanum, the American Civil War, “women’s problems,” and the ongoing debate among historians today about how to understand opiate use and addiction in the late 19th century United States.
Links and notes for ep. 410 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/AFD-Ep-410-Links-and-Notes-Late-19th-Century-Opiates-in-the-US.pdf
Theme music by Stunt Bird.
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Topics: The arrival of Finland’s baby box program to the US; US combat deaths in Niger; CIA document releases on the 1960s Indonesia massacres. People: Bill, Nate. Produced: Oct 24th, 2017.
Episode 201 (53 min):
AFD 201
– Partial list of links from Bill and Nate on these three topics (PDF)
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Music by friend of the show @StuntBirdArmy.
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Guest Interview: Frances Moore Lappé and Adam Eichen, authors of the book “Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want”
Episode 198 (50 min):
AFD 198
– Our collected research links on the rural health segment
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This story is from March 2015, but it just came across my radar today:
Two years after Congress reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, Native American tribes can finally take advantage of one of the law’s most significant updates: a provision that allows tribal courts to investigate and prosecute non-Native men who abuse Native women on reservations.
Starting Saturday, tribes can claim jurisdiction over non-Native men who commit crimes of domestic violence, dating violence or who violate a protection order against a victim who lives on tribal land. Until now, that jurisdiction has fallen to federal or state law enforcement, who are often hours away from reservations and lack the resources to respond. The result has effectively allowed non-Native abusers immunity from punishment.
During the preceding two years, several tribal governments worked through a pilot program with the Federal government to develop the rules and guidelines necessary to handle the complexity of sovereign arrest and prosecution of U.S. citizens by non-U.S. tribal governments and non-U.S. tribal law enforcement.
This new power will be critical to halting rampant non-native abuse and assaults of native women.
Women have an inalienable right to make autonomous and independent decisions about their bodies and their reproductive choices in consultation with their physicians. As demonstrated yesterday once again, this right is under constant assault across the United States at this moment by lawmakers and reactionary extremists.
It is no longer sufficient for those who make and execute our laws to maintain an ambivalence or passivity on the question of access to this vital, lifesaving healthcare. It has not been sufficient ever since the Stupak Amendment made clear in 2009 that the cause of reproductive freedom was under assault and that the other side was significantly more prepared. Our officials, at every level, must defend that right vigorously against all infringements and impediments, whether by individuals or policymakers. That right covers both abortion services and contraceptive methods, as well as impartial counseling and prenatal health services.
Our officials should also seek to ensure an equality of access to this right for all women (or any members of our society who can get pregnant), regardless of means or circumstance. They should also secure the right for all people to obtain health care without private interference or intimidation.
Arguably as important as the need for more strong female characters: we need more weak female characters! Successful TV shows and movies star needy, cruel, insecure, egotistic, and/or violent men all the time, and adding more flawless female superheroes is only part of a solution. (and yes, this is just a roundabout way of saying we need more female characters.)
