Progress?

A month and a half flew by me and many of the thoughts jostling in my head remained there instead of appearing on this blinking computer screen, or even on paper, however that shall be no more.

After a significant series of events (which I'll mention as they were incredibly recent) I am prompted to make sure that this blog does not lose its purpose.

Wednesday, I attended the Campus Progress conference at the Mariott Wardman Hotel in Adams Morgan and was actually pleased at the turnout and plan on the conference, except for how incredibly long it was. Senator Barack Obama was the featured keynote speaker, though overshadowing the many other wonderful people who were there. The first panel discussion I attended concerned the media and investigative journalism, something right up my alley considering I write for the Michigan Daily. It gave a few good ideas as to how to improve the quality of my writing, and some incredibly new story ideas to refresh my beat since it's so ambigous to begin with.

The most intriguing panel was the one labeled "war on science", where former FDA director of Women's Health, Susan Wood was there. I've heard Wood speak before about her resignation and the partisan problems within the FDA( fyi, she quit due to lack of movement on making Plan B [birth control pill taken within 72 hours to prevent unintended pregnancy] over the counter) , however someone brought up a very good question. How come there is always a strom of controversy surrounding women and their reproductive health options, but no one cares when men start popping Viagra like candy? You have to love the hypocritical and male dominated society we live in. I understand the significant differences between the women's reproductive and birth control options and those available for men because of the homrones and biological substances involved that may cause side-effects and other serious problems. But how come a 16 year old girl has to get permission to get Plan B if she doing it for her own preventative measures, while a boy her age can just go to the store and buy a pack of condoms, no questions asked?


Of course there was also the hip hop panel where rapper Fat Joe was present and being speared about his misogynistic lyrics, while his defense is "i'm an entertainer".

And this only further stirs the pot about women and science. Take that Lawerence Summers!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/science/18conv.html?ex=1153454400&en=65118c7d8bd21bc4&ei=5087%0A

* Don't peg me as a raging feminist, but its taken some work on women's issues on campus and being in Washington DC for me to realize that women still don't have a level playing field to work on.