Watch out, world — Angie isn’t the only Dakota Woman making laws! Mandy was just named second place winner in Trust Women’s Elizabeth Blackwell Bill Writing Competition with an awesome piece of proposed legislation called The Informed Consent Equality Act. The bill (which will hopefully be coming soon to a state legislature near you) would combat crazy so-called ‘informed consent’ provisions like the ones we’ve seen in South Dakota by requiring that all patients receive true informed consent before any medical treatment (even women!). Way to go, Mandy! You’re a rock star!

The State of DakotaWomen, 2012 Assembly

DW CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 1

Introduced by: Mandy and Kelsey

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, Recognizing today, January 22, as the anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade that  secured access to safe and legal abortion for women nationwide and its accompaniment of Blog for Choice Day.

WHEREAS, women make up half of our population and have brains of their own; and

WHEREAS, Roger Hunt and Leslee and Allen Unruh are fringe lunatics who erroneously market their brand of crazy as the majority position of South Dakotans; and

WHEREAS, while the SD legislature is usually a bunch of asshats that do their utmost to nationally embarrass us, HCR 1001 and SB 68 are surprisingly reasonable and very much DW-approved; and

WHEREAS, the rest of the nation can stop crapping on red states and recognize we are not all ignorant dipshits; and

WHEREAS, the majority of South Dakotans are sick and fucking tired of repeated attempts to use state resources to push an issue twice decided by our people and guaranteed as law of the land; and

WHEREAS, the theme for 2012 Blog for Choice Day is, “What will you do to help elect pro-choice candidates in 2012?“; and

WHEREAS DakotaWomen and its readers will answer that question by supporting the DakotaWomen PAC (donation button located conveniently to your right), thereby insuring that our state sees more of the sane and reasonable and less of the batshit crazy in our lawmaking bodies:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the DakotaWomen of the State of South Dakota, uncrazy people concurring therein, that today, January 22 2012, be recognized as Blog for Choice Day, to encourage thanks, advocacy, and celebration of reproductive rights and justice nationwide.

Winter has officially arrived in South Dakota. Stay warm and check out what we’ve been talking about in DW-land:

*In case you’ve forgotten, South Dakota has some really icky STIs going around and now gonorrhea is at its highest rate in 25 years. (Note: Leslee Unruh has been involved with abstinence education in South Dakota for 27 years. Coincidence? I think we should start calling gonorrhea Unruh Pox.)

*Mary Mazzio is a kick ass lady, but can’t you kick ass even if you aren’t sporty?

*I’m pretty sensitive to this kind of thing, but the argument that a clothing line based on Lisabeth Salander’s style is somehow ‘glamorizing sex attacks‘ is stupid and demeaning. It’s essentializing a person as a victim nothing else. Sexual assault survivors have a lot more to them (including their personal sense of style) than what happened to them. Can you imagine looking at a person you know has been raped and thinking, “She’s wearing a hat. A rape victim hat!”

*I love the idea of lady-centric media, but there’s something about the name Hello Giggles that rubs me the wrong way. Like Zooey Deschanel herself, it may cross the line into too cute.

*Why rape jokes aren’t funny: “Let’s boil this down to its common denominator: laughing at torture that has historically been directed at one class of people who were not allowed access to societal protection or defense is a very clear indicator of where your loyalties lie.”

*Keep this article bookmarked for the next time someone starts man-splaining to you about the man-cession.

*This book about Rosa Parks and how black women’s protests against sexual assault and interracial rape fueled the civil rights movement looks super interesting. Perhaps Anna will provide us with a review?

Enjoy your weekend and get ready for exciting legislative fun to come. In the meantime, here’s an awesome tune from the Woolly Bandits:

27 years ago, a freedom fighter was born (hint: it’s not Dolly Parton). Today, Senator Angie Buhl celebrates her birthday…and she does so legislating, live from the State Capitol in Pierre, serving the people of District 15, Sioux Falls. Angie’s done more for the people of South Dakota in her 27 years than many of us will do in a lifetime. In fact, she’s so awesome that Politico has even announced her birthday. So, take some time to wish her a great day and if you’re so inclined, feel free to make a donation to DakotaWomen PAC in her honor so we can keep people like Sen. Buhl in office, fighting for the underrepresented. You can donate using the PayPal button on the right side of the page.

From all of us here at DW, Happy Birthday to you, Angie! 

What do you say, dear readers:

I think we’re all fairly united on what issues we’d like the South Dakota Legislature to avoid this session, but what would you actually like to see our lawmakers address?

Buckle in, folks! Today marks the start of the 87th SD Legislative Session. As always, session promises to be entertaining, bang-your-head-against-a-wall-inducing, and generally ineffectual. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay attention. Communicating with your representatives is super important, as is supporting those who deserve it and discussing the abuse of passing more Unconstitutional bills aimed at restricting women’s access to medical services with those who don’t.

Make sure to scope out the SD Legislative Research Council website and keep your eyes peeled as new bills are introduced.

We already know that we’ll see a bill aimed at limiting abortion provision here in SD to before 20 weeks gestation and a bill that will rescind the 2010 bill that tightened the statute of limitations for claims of child sexual abuse. We also know Governor Daugaard is willing to bankrupt the state in order to push anti-choice legislation through our court system.

Representative Roger Hunt (R-10) is termed in the House this session and it appears he has no plans for re-election to the Senate. That means he’s likely to go out in a blaze of batshit glory. Ladies beware! Will we see a bill requiring women to eat dinner at the Unruhs the night before her abortion? A bill that requires women to obtain a BA in psychology before obtaining reproductive health services? A bill that requires women to name their first born “Leslee”? A bill requiring women to submit urine samples before voting? Abolishing women’s right to vote or serve in the legislature altogether? Only time will tell.

…and that’s why there’s no sitting on the sidelines. Get ready to rumble, y’all.

The countdown to 2012 is on and before we know it, we’ll be coming out of our legislative hangover and thrust into the November election with lots of inevitable WTFs in between. A lot happened in 2011 — for SD, for the nation, and especially for women. So we ask: what do you think the biggest news story for women was this year?

In an effort to get you talking, we’re bringing in something new here at DW: a question of the week. As fun as it is for us to talk at you all day long, believe it or not, we’d also like to hear what you have to say. We’d also like to encourage more use of our lady brains and discussion with you, dear reader.

So, without further ado…

I saw Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on its opening night and aside from kicking a lot of ass, the tale, along with its written predecessor, has gotten a lot of criticism for its themes of violence against women, which flow over. Author Steig Larsson, who wrote the book as part of a trilogy, suffered from guilt arising from a gang rape he witnessed when he was a teenager. The incident informed his themes of sexual violence against women explored in the trilogy. Now the works are taking to the big screen, raising the question: does violence against women in film educate the public about the real problem or perpetuate the idea of woman as victim? 

What do you think?

Long time, no blog, right? I could give you a million excuses about busy lives and this and that, but I watch way too much Hulu to honestly make that argument. We all get busy, but we also get lazy. But I’m here now, taking a blessed break from grading to bring you a little roundup of what we’ve been talking about in DW land.

*Can you believe this 8th Circuit circus is still going on?

*Also, remember when our state had no money so the Governor and the legislator passed a budget that took a big crap on kids and poor people and the elderly? And then they also passed more unconstitutional laws that will cost millions to defend, but promised they’d find some ruck puppet master to fund their little crusade? Because I don’t think the Governor remembers that.

*Help the Feeding South Dakota Backpack Food Program win $1000 — and keep it out of the hands of the Alpha Center and Focus on the Family. And if you have a few extra bucks, give to the program yourself!

Depressing:
*An unfortunate but not unexpected update on the lawsuit brought by Native sexual abuse survivors against the Catholic Church. Hopefully some positive progress will be made on this during the upcoming legislative session.

*This story about a woman’s home abortion and subsequent persecution is sad enough — but the less than supportive comments on a supposedly feminist website make it even worse.

Not depressing!
*The teen birthrate is down! Yippee — keep it up, savvy teens!

*If you live in South Dakota, you probably already know we have awesome skies. But did you know they were this awesome?

*Also awesome? My best friend who just hasn’t met me yet, Amy Poehler.

*I cannot even tell you how much I am kicking myself for not coming up with FakeLesleeUnruh.

Just plain disgusting:
*Usually it’s dudes doing gross stuff with semen, but in this story, it’s a super crazy lady. Awful.

Jay Smooth may have been created ala Weird science as the perfect progressive cutie for straight feminists to drool over. Enjoy some of his genius as your weekend wraps up.

The end of a holiday weekend is always bitter-sweet. Nope, scratch that. Let’s be honest: it’s really just bitter. While appreciating our service men and women, enjoying the last remants of nice weather, and sparing a little bit of time to enjoy the calm before the holiday storm, here’s what made the DW radar this week…

Things we love: orgs like Iraq Veterans Against the War that dished the lady love this Vets Day.

Things we’ll never understand: “it just happened.” Somewhat in the same realm as the previously covered and equally “holy shit!”-inducing “Baby Roulette,” this shit is bananas.

Speaking of…

Do Japanese people have a hit out on Ms. Gwen? We think we might.

I question who was drunker in this scenario: the dude who pulled a knife in a bar or the legislator who thought he did so because he thought some SD legislators were in a biker gang.

The Sioux Falls Roller Dollz kick some international derby ass! Way to represent, gals!

We’re convinced that if Tina Fey and Amy Poehler lived here, they’d totally be a DakotaWoman. Make sure to scope out the story Tina’s narrating on SD Sioux women.

As you gear up for another week, enjoy this sweet little ditty. Monday’s not here yet, y’all.