Satan is now a feminist
The devil works hard, but the Republican Party works harder. Not a day goes by without anti-abortion activists coming up with some cunning new plan to take away women's bodily autonomy. In addition to closing abortion clinics, red states are trying to ban the abortion pill: On Friday, Missouri, Kansas and Idaho renewed their push for legalization. to mifepristone to reduce access.
In the midst of this hellish scene, help may come from a somewhat unlikely source: Satan. Or, to be more precise – and because the devil is in the details –, the Satanic Temple.
Founded in 2012, The Satanic Temple (not to be confused with the very different Church of Satan) is not about devil worship. Rather, it is about raising hell to free ourselves from the religious right's crusade to impose its beliefs on everyone else. “Right now we have a minority religious theocratic movement, so entrenched in politics that we let them do what they want,” co-founder Lucian Greaves told The Guardian earlier this year.
The Satanic Temple, recognized as a religion by the IRS, uses the tactics of the religious right and its victories against it. When a Ten Commandments monument was erected at the Oklahoma State Capitol in 2012, for example, the temple submitted a request to place a 7-foot-tall statue depicting Satan as Baphomet, a goat-headed figure with horns. In his application, he argued that the decision to have the Ten Commandments monument paved the way for satanic depiction. (They weren't the only ones protesting: the satirical Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster also requested a monument.) In the end, the Ten Commandments statue was removed by order of the state Supreme Court and the Horned One was not granted immortality in Oklahoma.
Over the years, the Satanic Temple has taken on topics such as classroom prayer, after-school Bible study groups, and distributing Bibles in schools. Now, for obvious reasons, it is increasingly turning its evil gaze toward abortion rights. Last year, New Mexico opened an online abortion clinic called Samuel Alito's Mother's Satanic Abortion Clinic, citing the conservative jurist who wrote. The majority opinion overturned Roe v. Wade. “In 1950, Samuel Alito's mother had no options, and look what happened,” Satanic Temple co-founder Malcolm Jarry said at the time.
Like its other causes, the Satanic Temple labels abortion as an important part of its religious beliefs. Women are asked to recite a ritual (“By my flesh, by my blood, by my will, it is done”) before taking abortion pills to avoid “unjust persecution.” Devasthanam has also sued states that have banned abortion. The argument is that abortion is a religious ritual for their church and that denying permission for these ritual abortions is unconstitutional.
All of this has had the desired effect of driving Satanists' opponents crazy. The Christian Research Institute, an evangelical group, described the group as “troll lords” and said they “use their cartoonish, dark and villainous style to incite the public and subject Christian rights to judicial confrontation.”
That conflict may arise as the Satanic Temple just opened its second telehealth abortion clinic, this time in Virginia. It's called the Right to Your Life Satanic Abortion Clinic. “We are actively working to increase access in other states, including taking legal action to provide religious abortion services in restricted states like Indiana and Idaho,” Temple said in a statement. They are truly doing the Lord's work.
“It is important to protect people, mainly the younger generations, from the imposition of childlessness ideology on the Internet, media, films and advertising,” said one politician. JD Vance, who I imagine has very strong opinions about “Childless Cat Women,” nods wistfully at all of this and makes notes about copycat law in the US.
An American startup charges couples to “test the IQ of their fetuses”
Video footage taken by the group Hope Not Hate and reviewed by The Guardian shows the company Heliospect Genomics selling its services for up to $50,000 for 100 embryos, with one manager boasting of a potential gain of more than six IQ points. One geneticist told The Guardian that one of the many problems with this “is that it normalizes this idea of 'higher' and 'inferior' genetics… [and] It reinforces the belief that inequality is due to biological rather than social causes.
UK women who have a heart attack in public are less likely to receive CPR
According to a new study, this is because viewers are worried about touching women's breasts while pressing them. Better training can solve this problem and save lives, the report suggests.
More American women have tattoos than men
Thirty-eight percent of women and 27% of men, to be exact, according to the Pew Research Center. The Washington Post explores the ways in which some women get tattoos as a way to “regain control” over their bodies.
South Korean court recognizes misogyny as motive for hate crime in landmark ruling
The ruling was handed down in relation to a case in which a woman was attacked by a woman who shouted “feminists deserve to be beaten” because she had short hair.
Donald Trump calls himself 'father of IVF' at Fox News town hall
After the silly statement, he added that he didn't really know what IVF was until Sen. Katie Britt, whom Trump described as “a wonderfully attractive person from Alabama,” explained it to him. “In about two minutes I discovered it,” exclaimed the former president. Donald: I'm not sure you really did.
Nicola Coughlan says being called a 'plus-size heroine' is an insult
Coughlan had strong words for viewers who called Bridgerton “brave” for its nudity scenes in season 3. “Don't call me brave. “I have a pair of breasts… and I'm actually showing them,” she told Time magazine. “I'm a few sizes shorter than the average size of a woman in the UK, and I'm considered a 'plus-size heroine.'” '…my appearance is degrading and boring.'
IDF shot Palestinian woman while picking olives in West Bank
Hanan Abu Salameh, 59, was picking olives with her family when she was killed. Israeli forces, her son said, accidentally opened fire and shot his mother as she fled. The IDF has said it is “investigating,” but given previous “investigations,” one would think that no one would be held responsible.
Week in Bamarachi
An American paraglider flying over the Great Pyramids of Egypt recently spotted something unusual at the top of the second tallest pyramid. Is it a bird? Is that a plane? No, it was a dog on top of a 448-foot structure so he could bark at birds. After a satisfying barking session, the dog managed to make it to safety. However, since climbing the pyramids is illegal, the adventurous animal can be found in a puppy.
