Nervy Girl!

by Lisa Cannon
Not since women burned their bras in public bonfires have these intimate supporters been the focus of such controversy.

It all started last October when El Cerrito, Calif. artist Emily Duffy responded to a news item about a male artist looking for a home for his bra collection. He planned to string them across the Grand Canyon, but couldn't get permission. Duffy, an artist who has addressed female body image and gender issues in her work, jumped at the chance to have the collection. She proposed a giant ball made of the thousands of bras wrapped around each other. After several discussions, the male artist told Duffy that not only had he decided not to give her the bras, but that he was going to make the BraBall himself...

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by Tamara King
On April 6, 2001, the Washington State Senate passed a law specifying that breastfeeding and expressing breast milk are not indecent exposure. Citing the low breastfeeding rates and duration in the U.S., it also created a new, infant-friendly designation that employers may use if they have a breastfeeding policy that addresses flexible work scheduling and provides a sanitary, private location other than a restroom for breastfeeding or expressing breast milk. This followed a survey of Washington mothers that found two-thirds return to work by the time their child is six months old, and that most want to breastfeed, but discontinue sooner than they had hoped to because of a lack of societal and workplace support.

by Jason Jones
When taking the stage at the Pine Street Theater this winter, Bratmobile's Allison Wolfe proclaimed, "Grrrl is spelled with three Rs, for all you music journalists out there." Thanks to a small group of students affiliated with the Women's Studies Department at Portland State University, local teens this summer will have a prime place to learn their three Rs. Misty McElroy took on the project as part of her studies and has enlisted the help of numerous musicians, educators, and other volunteers to create a Rock n' Roll Camp for Girls, Aug. 20-24. Campers from varied backgrounds will have a chance to apply their new skills on stage alongside mentors Aug. 25 at an all-ages venue to be announced. The camp costs $20 and scholarships are available...

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by Michelle Milne
On March 29, about 50 girls aged 8-18 from around Oregon traveled to the capital to let legislators know where they stand. The girls were sponsored and transported by participant groups of the Girls Initiative Network, an coalition of organizations dedicated to raising political involvement of girls. They met with representatives and senators, mainly from Republican leadership...

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by Tamara King
On March 7, 2001 the United Nations Children's Fund called for a global campaign to prevent the widespread phenomenon of child marriage. Half of all girls in some countries are married by the time they are 18. Child marriages are found across the globe, but are especially common in parts of Africa and South Asia. The UNICEF study cites poverty and the traditional desire to protect girls from out-of-wedlock pregnancies as major factors encouraging child marriage. The study found that abuse is common in child marriages, particularly during pregnancy, and that girls aged 15 to 19 give birth to 15 million babies a year. UNICEF's Global Girls' Education Program operates in more than 60 countries to ensure girls an equal opportunity at education, key in postponing marriage.

by Michelle Milne
On March 9, Antanas Mockus, mayor of Bogota, Colombia, declared a "women's night out." Women took over the city's police and emergency services, and men were given a voluntary curfew keeping them at home after dark. The Economist reported that the few men who ventured out were "heckled, hustled out of clubs and pelted with flour bombs." The night out inspired media coverage of women-related issues including domestic violence and dividing household chores. Half a million women took to the streets but, according to The Economist, for one night Bogota's murder rate and road accidents fell by 80 percent and other serious crime was cut by 30 percent.

by Leah Bobal
Early results from the 2001 Census of India show that the sex ratio (the number of females per 1,000 males) has dropped to 927 this year from 945 in 1991...

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by Leah Bobal
The women of Mother Tongue Ink, publishers of the womyn-friendly lunar calendar We'Moon-Gaia Rhythms for Womyn, are rebuilding after an electrical fire destroyed their main house in nearby Estacada. The fire broke out the morning of Feb. 18 and quickly consumed the main house, which included offices, a shared kitchen, bathroom and common space. Though six women were staying at We'Moonland, no one was in the main house during the fire. Fifty-foot flames destroyed everything, from dishes to computer files...

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by Michelle Milne
After a whirlwind, chaotic changeover in management this past February, within two short months all programs are up and running again, serving victims/survivors of domestic violence. Due to internal problems, the entire staff was fired within a week, and the board and executive director who fired them resigned-just hours prior to a special membership meeting that had been called earlier in the week...

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by Kristin Schuchman
In 1999, a Portland jury ordered a group of anti-abortionists who'd created an extremist website targeting abortion providers to pay $109 million in damages to four abortion providers and two local clinics, including Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/ Willamette. In March the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco threw out the jury's verdict, ruling that the anti-abortionists' "Nuremberg Files" website and "Deadly Dozen" posters, though extreme, did not count as true threats...