i shuddered when i read this and i'm STILL shuddering

i couldn't believe what i was reading! no wonder women are still being discriminated against. no wonder women are earning less than men. no wonder women are thought to only be breasts and high heels. no wonder women will continue to be downtrodden. why? because of absolute giant flaming assholes clueless people like amy wilson

p.s. good thing we're not in india when it's not unusual for girl children and girl fetus' to be killed

p.p.s. not only is it obviously outrageous for amy giant flaming asshole wilson to be writing this, it's effing outrageous for cnn to EFFING PUBLISH IT

Why I didn't want a girl
By Amy Wilson
In an elevator, in line at the grocery store, waiting for the bus, it always goes like this: Strangers' eyes zero in on my belly first. Then they dart furtively to my face, as if to make sure I'm not a mutant, just visibly pregnant.

After this, they ask, "Is this your first?"

"My third," I answer. "I have two boys at home."

And for the kicker, they unfailingly give me a sideways grin, and say: "Going for your girl?"

"Nooo, just going for a baby," I reply, gritting my teeth a little. "Another boy would be fine with us."

I know these people are just making conversation. But this constant assumption leaves me a little offended. What's wrong with boys? Why wouldn't I want another one? It bothers me that people assume I feel incomplete without a daughter, let alone that it's my motivation for being pregnant with a third child in the first place............

.............I sat there in a daze. This child I was just starting to feel stir inside me was a girl? I waited for the excitement to wash over me. It didn't come. Not only was I not thrilled -- I was disappointed. I'm still not sure whether I was more bummed by how I found out or what I found out. Either way, I was shaken...................

one would think there would be the SAME concerns

or points to consider if administered to grrrls AND boys. like everything else (take for example women being EXcluded from many different types of medical studies), they are NOT treated equally. we MUST knock down those walls and get RID of the double standard. we MUST for not only our daughters but our sons as well
A Vaccine Debate Once Focused on Sex Shifts as Boys Join the Target Market

By Rob Stein

Washington Post Staff Writer

When a vaccine designed to protect girls against a sexually transmitted virus arrived three years ago, the debate centered on one question: Would the shots make young girls more likely to have sex?

Now the vaccine's maker is trying to get approval to sell the vaccine for boys, and the debate is focusing on something else entirely: Is it worth the money, and is it safe and effective enough?

"We are still more worried about the promiscuity of girls than the promiscuity of boys," said Susan M. Reverby, a professor of women's studies and medical history at Wellesley College. "There's still that double standard."

The shift in the discussion about Gardasil illustrates the complex interplay of political, economic, scientific, regulatory and social factors that increasingly influence decisions about new types of medical care. For the vaccine, the new dynamic reflects a strategic tack by Gardasil's critics, growing concern about health-care costs, fears about whether medical treatments are being vetted adequately and stubborn biases about gender, experts say............

nujood ali, hero of mine, rape survivor, divorcee oh and 10 year old

and most likely she is still in line for an honor killing because of course EVEN AT 10, BEING SOLD TO A 30+ YEAR OLD WHO BEAT AND RAPED HER DAILY, SHE HAS 'DISGRACED HER FAMILY' (by wanting to be a human being instead of a sold object)

A 10-Year-Old Divorcée Takes Paris
Old Divorcée Takes Paris

In a dimly lit corner of a Paris bar a delighted young divorcée describes in a soft voice how she spent the day throwing snowballs for the first time in her life. That is not remarkable. This is: Nujood Ali is just 10 years old — and was, until recently, the youngest known divorced person in the world.

Slender with thick hair and a shy smile, Ali made headlines in Yemen last April when she walked out on a man more than three times her age, to whom her father had married her off. It was an act driven by terror and despair. (See the top 10 crime stories of 2008.)

Nujood's ordeal began last February, when the family gathered to celebrate her wedding to a motorcycle deliveryman in his 30s. She first set eyes on the groom when she took her marriage vows. After spending her wedding night with her parents and 15 brothers and sisters, Nujood was taken by her new husband to his family village, where, she says, he beat and raped her every night. After two nightmarish months he allowed her to visit her parents, who rebuffed her pleas to end the marriage.

Nujood finally found her moment to escape one day, when her mother gave her a few pennies and sent her out to buy bread. Instead she took a bus to the center of the capital, Sanaa — a city of 3 million people — where she hailed a taxi and asked to be taken to the courthouse. She had never been inside a courtroom but had once seen one on television, she says, and knew it was a place where people went for help. There she sat silently on a bench, uncertain as to what to do, while crowds of people scurried past, scarcely glancing at the quiet child. It was only once the courthouse emptied during the lunch recess that the judge noticed her and asked why she was there. "I came for a divorce," she told him. Horrified, he took her to his house to play with his 8-year-old daughter, and granted the divorce two days later................

picture:

Nujood Ali

BORIS HORVAT/AFP/Getty