(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . This Week in the War on Women, 6/9-15/24: Cheffery Edition [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-15 I like to start out with some amazing women doing amazing things recently. So: According to the NY Times: The James Beard Chef and Restaurant Awards were presented Monday evening, June 10: To some readers, it may not seem surprising that women do well as professional cooks. However, whilst women are expected to be home cooks, traditionally chefs and restaurateurs have been expected to be men. This began to change around the time of the World Wars, but investors still mostly finance male chefs. The popularity of this year’s event suggests that the organization may have weathered conflicts both internal and external, which exploded in 2020 when the foundation canceled the awards at the last minute after critics said the slate of nominees was not diverse enough and contained chefs who had been accused of abuse. In addition to cooking prowess and the quality of the dining experience, the awards now consider a nominee’s treatment of staff, work in the community and commitment to broader issues like equity and climate change. As a result, the range of nominated chefs and restaurants has expanded beyond America’s coasts, traditional culinary powerhouses and darlings of food media. This year, a wide-ranging list of finalists was more geographically diverse than ever, featuring new names and lesser-known restaurants. Pretty cool changes, IMO, as someone who has never lived on either coast. Female chefs and restaurants associated with women include: Outstanding restaurant - Langbaan, Portland, OR: Maya Erickson, Pastry Chef; Heaven-Leigh Carey, General Manager. Outstanding restaurateur - Erica and Kelly Whitaker, Id Est:, Denver, CO: Id Est is a visionary hospitality group with a commitment to excellent guest experience and environmental impact. Our restaurant kitchens and bars focus on supporting regenerative agricultural ingredients, specifically by developing a closed loop system for local, heirloom grain. Zero waste principles guide our operations, ensuring a minimal environmental footprint and a dedication to preserving ingredients through our garden and fermentation programs. We prioritize social sustainability, fostering a culture that nurtures and empowers our team, with a goal of creating a balance between excellence and the well-being of all involved. Best new restaurant - Dakar NOLA, New Orleans, LA: Owner and managing director Dr. Effie Richardson. Emerging chef - Masako Morishita, Washington DC executive chef at Perry's Restaurant. Outstanding pastry chef or baker - Atsuko Fujimoto, Norimoto Bakery, Portland, ME. Best chef, Midwest - Christina Nguyen, Hai Hai, Minneapolis, MN. Best chef, South - Valerie Chang, Maty’s, Miami, FL. Best chef, Texas: Ana Liz Pulido, Ana Liz Taqueria, Mission, TX. Lifetime Achievement Award - Ruth Reichl, "author, editor and former restaurant critic for The New York Times". In Other News Climate From The Guardian: Swiss lawmakers reject climate ruling [by the European Court of Human Rights that was] in favour of female climate elders: Co-president of the KlimaSeniorinnen says declaration is betrayal of older women: A panel of Strasbourg judges ruled in April that Switzerland had violated the human rights of older women through weak climate policies that leave them more vulnerable to heatwaves. Activists hailed the judgment as a breakthrough because it leaves all members of the Council of Europe exposed to legal challenges for sluggish efforts to clean up carbon-intensive economies. But the Swiss parliament’s lower house voted on Wednesday to disregard the ruling – with 111 votes in favour and 72 against – arguing that the judges had overstepped their bounds and that Switzerland had done enough. The declaration, which has been adopted by the upper house but does not bind the federal government, accused the court of “inadmissible and disproportionate judicial activism”. -snip- The KlimaSeniorinnen – or Swiss female climate elders – are a group of 2,400 women over the age of 65 who took the Swiss government to court for failing to do its fair share to stop the planet heating 1.5C (2.7F). After years of setbacks in regional and national courts, they escalated the case to Europe’s top human rights court and scored a partial victory. GIS explains further: According to the Court, that means that country signatories and parties to the Convention – a group that includes Switzerland – are obligated to adopt and implement climate policies. In the case of Switzerland, the Court found that “there had been critical gaps in the process of putting in place the relevant domestic regulatory framework, including a failure by the Swiss authorities to quantify, through a carbon budget or otherwise, national greenhouse gas emissions limitations.” Additionally, the Court claims that Switzerland had previously failed to meet its emission reduction targets and that the Swiss people had rejected a more ambitious climate change law. The judges maintain that both are indicators of the gaps in Swiss climate policy, which constitute a breach of Article 8 of the Convention. However, GIS (founded by Prince Michael of Liechtenstein) agrees with Switzerland that the court erred in some of its finding of fact and in overstepping. Nevertheless, they predict that the likely outcome is more action addressing climate change. Switzerland (h/t xaxnar) Violence The Guardian view on violence against women: admitting its vast extent is a first step The Met chief says the number of abusive men is beyond the police’s capacity to cope with. Politicians need a plan for victims https://www.theguardian.com/... Chechen Women From the Guardian, 6-10-2024 https://www.theguardian.com/... ‘I did not want to disappear in silence’: Chechen woman livestreamed attempted abduction by her family: Liya Zaurbekova is just one of a cohort of Chechen women who have tried to escape a deeply sexist and oppressive life. In a series of public messages recorded on her phone from a toilet cubicle at the station on 16 May, the 19-year-old Chechen woman warned that if the crowd outside succeeded in taking her back to Chechnya, it could be the last time anyone would hear from her. -snip- Over the years, Kadyrov’s security services, with the approval of the Kremlin, have grown more brazen, abducting women and regime critics within the country, raising fears that it can operate freely far beyond the borders of the tightly controlled Caucasus republic. -snip- Having made it abroad, Zaurbekova is determined to reclaim the years she lost while confined at home. “I need to rediscover myself and learn how to live again,” she said. But the fear of capture and a return to Chechnya continues to haunt her. #MeToo At 17, She Fell in Love With a 47-Year-Old. Now She Questions the Story: Jill Ciment’s 1996 memoir “Half a Life” described her teenage affair with the man she eventually married. Her new memoir, “Consent,” dramatically revises some details: Dreaming of becoming an artist, Ciment signed up for classes with Arnold Mesches, a well-known painter whose work she admired. Respect grew into infatuation, and one night after class, she waited for the other students to leave, and approached him. -snip- When Ciment wrote “Half a Life,” she and Mesches had been together for more than 20 years. He was the first reader on everything she wrote. After reading the scene, he had quibbled with a few phrases, but agreed on the key fact: She instigated the kiss. A few years ago, Ciment found herself reconsidering their origin story. Mesches had died of leukemia in 2016, at age 93. The #MeToo movement had unleashed a debate about sexual harassment and assault committed by men in positions of power. Ciment started to question her earlier account of their courtship. Abortion The19thNews Texas will continue its ban on abortions in medical emergencies, state Supreme Court rules ....The ruling means physicians must wait until patients are dangerously ill before terminating their pregnancies — in some cases resulting in otherwise preventable health complications. Under the law, learning that a fetus is unlikely to survive does not allow doctors to perform an abortion. The court clarified abortions could be performed for patients experiencing preterm premature rupture of membranes, but did not offer specifics on other circumstances that could qualify for an exception. Texas passed a law last year also suggesting abortions could be performed for patients with that specific condition, though the law requires physicians prove in court they qualified for the exception, what is known as an affirmative defense.... Hiding the Misogyny lede From the BBC: Reform UK candidate apologises over Hitler neutrality comments: A Reform UK candidate has apologised for claiming the country would be "far better" if it had "taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality" instead of fighting the Nazis in World War Two. Ian Gribbin, the party's candidate in Bexhill and Battle, also wrote online that women were the "sponging gender" and should be "deprived of health care". -snip- "Men pay 80% of tax – women spend 80% of tax revenue. On aggregate as a group you only take from society. This story was also reported in The Guardian. He seems nice. Eye roll. Gaming From Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Gender Research: Gaming Equity: Women, Videogame Companies, and Public Discourse: From the abstract: It is by now well documented and widely acknowledged that the videogame industry has since its inception been a bastion of hegemonic masculinity. Only more recently, however, with events like Gamergate, #metoo, and the public accusations of workplace toxicity and sexism brought against prominent AAA giants like Riot and Activision Blizzard King, have game companies initiated policies and processes for change—or at least what looks like change, based on company websites and interviews with female employees. Does this mean women are being heard, at last? The entire study is available at the link! Very Little Changes: By way of a Conclusion: In general, each of these companies have responded to grievous allegations of widespread harassment and harm in the workplaces they are responsible for with public relations-inspired public apologies, commitments to make donations to social justice focused organizations, and promises to hire more women and people from underrepresented groups. Apologies and donations are well and good, but this last response – to hire more women – is problematic and could easily do more harm than good. The notion that the dearth of women in games (and tech more broadly) has been because of a ‘leaky pipeline’, in other words, a lack of recruitment efforts and support for women in the industry, has long been understood to be an inadequate assessment of the problem. While there are barriers for women at all stages of the recruitment process, what this moment really highlights is how unwelcoming, hostile, and outright harmful the games industry can be for women once they get there. If games companies do not resolve rampant sexism and hateful behaviour in their workplaces, simply adding more women to the mix subjects more women to potential harm and gives them plenty of reasons to leave. There is little in these cases to suggest, however, that companies are invested in responding meaningfully and substantively to or resolving the issues women have been speaking about. Their objective seems simply to make the publicity of the problem go away so they can go back to selling games without having to address deeply structured problems of workplace inequity and carry on as they always have. This is evidenced in the ways these companies responded publicly to accusations of inequity or harassment. All acknowledge there is a problem, in some small way, all indicate that they have resolved said problem, and then reinforce the notion that it was never really that much of a problem to begin with. The authors then go on to discuss how and why workplace discrimination, even in private workplaces, must be a public concern - and some of the problems with "social" media. Diverse videogame players Condescension According to Buzzfeed: Naomi Campbell Said That Young Women Who Don’t Want Kids Due To The Economic Climate Will Change Their Minds: As Naomi gushed about how much she loves parenting, she admitted that she worries about the number of younger women who aren’t as keen on having kids themselves, partly due to the economic climate. “I have heard a lot of young girls saying that it is too expensive to have children and they may not want them, and I have said, ‘You will change your mind. You will want to be a mum,’” Naomi admitted. “I understand economically it is tough. But my mum had nothing and she made it work. It’s worth it. It is so amazing,” she said. Or like many women you could be happy and childless. Or you could change your minds, have unaffordable children, and be miserable. Especially considering that very few of us become well-paid supermodels. Native American News NYT Free First Female Leader in Centuries Returns a Tribal Nation to Its Roots Lisa Goree, 60, [was elected to] the helm of the Shinnecock Nation in April, as the Long Island tribe navigates disputes over burial grounds and projects to build a casino and a [travel plaza] gas station. While the United States has never elected a female president, and Mexico did only this month, female Native American chiefs are not rare. The Shinnecocks had female tribal leaders until 1792, when they adopted an all-male governing structure, Ms. Goree said. They had not had a female leader since then. Now Ms. Goree’s supporters are touting her election as a return to its matriarchal leadership roots and a departure from centuries of male leadership sometimes marked by internal division and antagonism with local, state and federal government officials. Ms. Goree likened her election to “a changing of the guard” in how the Shinnecocks approach relations on and off the reservation. Debut Novel: NativeNewsOnline Looking for Smoke, a debut thriller from the Heartdrum imprint: In a powerful novel aimed at readers 13 and up [grades 8-9 onward], author K. A. Cobell (Blackfeet) weaves loss, betrayal, and complex characters into a thriller that will illuminate, surprise, and engage readers until the final word. About the Author K. A. Cobell, Staa’tssipisstaakii, is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Nation. She currently lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she spends her time writing books, chasing her kids through the never-ending rain, and scouring the inlet beaches for sand dollars and hermit crabs. Looking for Smoke is her debut novel. -snip- With compassion and care, this debut casts light on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women epidemic through a story readers won’t be able to put down. Daily Kos is borked and may be going down! More items will be posted either in the comment or as an edit of this diary when the site becomes more functional! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/15/2246885/-This-Week-in-the-War-on-Women-6-9-15-24-Cheffery-Edition?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/