Argentina has just approved chemical castration for convicted rapists in the Mendoza province. The treatment must be voluntary, and because it’s a medication administered for the duration of their consent to treatment, it’s not permanent.

In the feminist community in particular, the debate over whether or not chemical castration should even be an option is still ongoing, but my initial reaction was: does anybody think this is actually going to work?! According to the CNN piece I linked above, there are 11 convicted rapists who will be undergoing treatment with a reduced sentence. It seems the hope is that if it’s successful in this province, it will be adopted in other provinces as well. But if the jury’s still out of how effective this is, how long do they intend to wait to deem it a success?

Last night, I had a scrumptious meal cooked by a good friend. Along with another friend, we sipped wine, busted out the Abbey Ale, and enjoyed the pleasure of each other’s company. And to make it a picture-perfect evening, we worked on our taxes.

Yes, it’s tax season here in the States and my friends and I turned what’s usually an annoyance into a fun night of food, drinks and good company.

For my friend, it was her first time filing taxes and we thought this would be a good way to promote financial independence. Hooray for sisterhood! We were able to coach her through the process and get her feeling more confident about being able to keep her finances in order. In fact, I think this dinner, drinks, taxes combo is a great one that I’ll be doing often! Any good cooks out there who need tax help? Or any awesome accountants in need of a yummy meal? I urge you all to start this tradition.

At some point in the evening, I started wondering what it is about women and finances… It shouldn’t be the case that we are easily intimidated by our personal finances, and yet I find that – at least in my groups of friends – many women are. My friend, for example, was completely freaking out about her taxes. She had no idea what she was supposed to do, what she needed, or how long it would take and the panic was getting to her.

With the rest of my friends, there are some who take complete control over their finances, making sure to keep their debt down, buying property, investing, etc. The rest are completely lost, in loads of debt, not even thinking about investing or buying anything, etc.

Do you all find that the women you know fall into the “don’t know anything about money” stereotype? Or do they have their finances in order? I’m curious to see how much of this is an actual problem and how much has finally changed.

I was doing my nightly read-through of news sites (a practice I haven’t actually done regularly in the past several months. whoops.), when I found this cool slide show of Women Airforce Service Pilots Through the Years. It’s a slide show so it doesn’t exactly have a wealth of information, but I thought it was cool and figured somebody else might to. In the 1940s, these women learned how to fly for the U.S. Army so they could serve their country. Today they were awarded with a Congressional gold medal for their service – pretty awesome stuff.

I have to say, though, that the picture that made this slide show amazing was this one:

I mean, the look on that man’s face is incredible! HE IS HAPPY, DAMNIT!, TO BE NEXT TO THESE WOMEN ON A PLANE! And the women have great hair styles, so that’s awesome too.

So, does anybody know anything about the Women Airforce Service Pilots? I feel like every time I discover a group of bad-ass women, I learn about a new one shortly after. Is there a book I can read about them, or what? (If not, who wants to write it? They sound incredible.)

Spoilers below the image!

This week’s episode centered on Sawyer who, off the island, he’s a cop trying to find the man he deems responsible for the death of his parents. On the island, Flocke is still recruiting, Claire confronts Kate about Aaron, Sawyer’s on a mission to get off the island, and Sayid’s heart is cold as ice.

Read our discussion on the episode and add your own thoughts, theories, and general reactions in the comments. Remember to avoid spoilers to episodes that have not yet aired.

What did everybody think?

SALLY: I was kinda meh about this episode. I love Sawyer and seeing Charlotte all dolled up was nice, but nothing happened.

LAUREN: I resent Jill emailing us the Lost Bingo Cards because I was yelling at the screen, “He looked in the mirror!” and “Obscure literary reference!” so I think I enjoyed the episode more on reflection than I did watching it. But I admit I’m a Sawyer fan. I like a man that drinks himself into oblivion in his undies on a deserted island while listening to Iggy Pop, a man that gleans his moral code from Michael Friggin’ Landon, a man that leaves the flower but takes the beer.

CARA: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz … Oh, I’m sorry, what were we talking about? Oh, the most recent episode of LOST? Sorry, I keep nodding of and having this bizarre dream that I’m watching this really boring episode called What Kate Does on an endless loop, while everyone else around me keeps insisting it’s a different episode. It’s weird!

Seriously, nothing happened. And the Sawyer and Charlotte thing was unbelievable. They had no chemistry. Though Sawyer and Miles on the other hand, I loved. There’s chemistry! For that reason, this was the only episode yet where I’ve actually been more interested in the flashsideways than in the on-island activities.

SALLY: I agree! In getting ready for the discussion, I couldn’t even remember what happened on the island – and I watched the episode twice!

SADY: It’s hard for me to talk about this episode much. Because I am dead now. I have literally DIED OF BOREDOM, due to this episode. This message, of course, is being delivered to you via my Earthly conduit, Top Secret Ghost Whispering Police Officer Miles.

In L.A., Sawyer is still running his con scam, except he’s an undercover cop! With Miles as his partner! Who thinks this would make a great spin-off?

SALLY: I mean, really, I would TOTALLY watch this as a spin-off! They would fight crime together, Charlotte would have a recurring role as Sawyer tries to work things out with her, and they would double date with Miles and his girlfriend. (Who, by the way, must be somebody we know, right? Maybe Ana Lucia cuz she’s a cop too and then she’d fight crime with them!)

SADY: Oh, my God, I had not considered that possibility. I seriously now want a spin-off about Miles and Ana-Lucia dating. I hereby entitle this proposed spin-off “Miles and Ana-Lucia: The Grumpiest Couple In The World.”

CARA: I already wanted a Miles and Hurley spin-off. So now I’m thinking that the spin-off should center around Miles as the star. He’s a cop, Sawyer is his partner, and Hurley is Miles’ wacky roommate who keeps getting in the way of Miles and Sawyer’s crime-fighting adventures. IT’D BE AWESOME!

LAUREN: List of Facebook campaigns I must start: 1) Get Gabourey Sidibe on SNL, 2) LOST Flash-Sideways Spin-Off Experiment Now. Further suggestions welcome.

SADY: Sorry, I am writing dialogue for my Miles and Ana-Lucia spin-off. “HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO DO. YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE OUT WITH ME.” “Oh, SORRY, I thought you were supposed to make out WITH ME.” “I LOVE YOU SO FUCKING MUCH IT MAKES ME EXTREMELY GRUMPY.” “I TOO HAVE REACHED NEW LEVELS OF GRUMPINESS DUE TO OUR RELATIONSHIP.” That is basically the pilot. For my show. 9 pm, ABC, right after “The Doctor Ben Linus Teaches Everyone How To Use The Coffee Machine Chronicles.”

LAUREN: I have no idea, but it seemed purposeful for that scene to play out right before Sawyer implies to Kate that only the two of them are getting off the island. I’m left wondering whether Sawyer’s intentions on-island are romantic or tactical.

CARA: Ew, I really hope they don’t turn out to be romantic. That would be gross. As I believe someone else has said before me, the idea that Sawyer would be like “oh, it’s been four episodes, over Juliet now!” just upsets me. I can briefly see him doing something impulsive and rebound-y in his grief, because some people do react to loss in that way, but the idea that there might be anything “romantic” about it, or anything long-lasting resulting when Juliet has been dead for, like, maybe 7 days, just really squicks me out.

LAUREN: I swear at this point Sawyer has boned every character on the show except Jack. Because he hates Jack.

SADY: Yeah, Sawyer solves seriously everything with boning. I’m so intrigued by his life as a police officer. “Officer Sawyer, we need you to apprehend this suspect immediately for charges of arson!” “Okay, so… I guess you can just drop by the hotel room where the suspect and I will be boning?” Like, what if this is the way he solves EVERY CASE?

CARA: Regarding the actual off-island scene, I’d just like to know why Sawyer the cop willingly and knowingly let Kate the fugitive go in the airport, in the first place. What kind of reasoning is that, “Eh, I’m still on vacation”? Worst. Cop. Ever. Oh, even better question! It’s been at least 4 days since the flight landed, right? (Miles said Sawyer got back two days ago the day of his date with Charlotte…) What the hell is Kate still doing in LA? Worst. Fugitive. Ever.

SALLY: I hadn’t even thought of that, but that’s some pretty awful cop behavior. I wonder if this means there will be a hot interrogation scene.

LAUREN: JIM FORD, ACTION HERO. Subtitle: “First he interrogates. Then he bones.”

And now that Locke and his father are all buddy-buddy, how will Sawyer’s search for Anthony Cooper work out? Or is Locke’s father not the real Sawyer in this reality?

CARA: Oooh, good question. I’d forgotten that Locke and his dad were apparently still friends. Has actual potential to be interesting!

But here is what Feminist Cara keeps thinking every time the “Sawyer wants revenge against Sawyer” thing comes up. Of all the people at this point who know or have been told the story, in both timelines, why has not a single one of them ever said to the guy, “Look man, that had to be really just awful for you. I can’t even imagine. And I totally get needing someone to blame, someone to hold responsible, someone that you can act out your grief upon. But did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, while what this Sawyer guy did was really wrong and not at all cool, it also didn’t kill your parents? Has it still not hit you that as awful as that guy is, the really awful guy is actually your dad? You know, the guy who reacted to infidelity and conning with an intimate partner murder? That the real victim here isn’t your mom and dad but just your mom? And that while con artists are bad and all, the abuser is really the one who is actually responsible, and the one you should be mad at? Your parents aren’t dead because of Sawyer, dude, they’re dead because of your dad.” You know, if anyone was going to say that, you’d think that it would have been Miles. So I’m just giving up hope that it’s ever going to happen. But still: WTF?

SALLY: Sadly, that is a level of depth I never expected to see on this show, but you’re totally right. The moment that really hit me was when we saw the actual scene with little James and his mother and him hiding under the bed and all of that. That was the first time I was really like “but, this dude totally didn’t need to kill anybody!” After that, though, I just took it as the usual “we’ll go ahead and use this as we need it, k?”

On the island, Claire is all hot and cold with Kate – she holds her hand, then she attacks her, then she’s all thank you, I love you, be my BFF. Is this an internal battle between Real Claire and Smoked Claire? Or is it Smokey manipulating the situation?

CARA: I was honestly a whole lot more interested in Sayid’s reaction. Probably because I care more about the unknowns regarding his character than something I knew was going to happen 5 episodes ago. I was hoping that Sayid was going to prove that he wasn’t really totally evil, and that maybe he was just like Sawyer and going along for the ride because he wants a positive outcome for himself. Maybe he was manipulated by Smokey, and not really “sick,” right? Sadly, when Claire was trying to kill Kate, Sayid sat there and stared at Kate with cold, dead eyes while she pleaded for his help. The real Sayid would never, ever do that. Woe.

SALLY: Sayid’s reaction was quite discomforting. In terms of Claire, I think that her behavior continues to support my theory that Smokey inhabits the bodies of dead people while a piece of his Smokeyness can inhabit the near-dead. (Ok, I realize Sayid kind of goes against that but not really if Smokey decided he’d be more effective in Locke’s body which is true at any rate.) With that theory in mind, I think the Smokey in Claire is helping Flocke manipulate Kate to recruit her.

SADY: Some of this is addressed below, when we talk about how The Smoke Monster Was Born Of A Crazy Lady Smoke Monster Thus Has Issues, but… was anyone else like, REALLY BOTHERED by the intense abusive/paternalistic tone of the scene where Locke “calms Claire down?” First he grabs her (okay, since she needs to be separated from Kate), and then he whomps the hell out of her (NOT OKAY, by this point she has been separated from Kate), then he takes this very Daddy-is-disappointed-in-you tone when he tells her that violence is “completely inappropriate.” Like, the resonance in that scene, to my by-this-point-known-to-be-hypersensitive eyes, was that sometimes women get all irrational and if you, A Man, just smack them around and talk to them like children, you can gain control of the situation. Which… UNCOOL.

CARA: Yes, definitely bothered. The Smokey is Good theory is starting to lose steam …

Flocke tries to get to Kate by telling her that his mother was crazy and now Aaron has a crazy mother. Do you believe a word of this?

LAUREN: I’m seeing a lot of speculation on the “crazy mother” angle on fan sites, but it wasn’t clear whether this was MiB talking about his own life or whether he was just adopting Locke’s story to feed to Kate. If it was MiB talking about his own life, we’ve got a lot of epic Biblical and mythical stories to point to about brothers, twins, and “crazy mothers,” see Jacob and Esau, Zurvan Zoroastrian myth, Cain and Abel, etc., most of which probably don’t apply. In other news, Skull Baby was back, and he looks a little like Alf.

Before we close this topic, we can’t let the producers’ choice of a “crazy mother” storyline go without discussion.

CARA: Yes, seriously. The whole “crazy mother” thing really pissed me off, and clearly buys into a whole lot of really dangerous ableist and misogynistic tropes regarding mental illness, parenting, and a mothers’ role specifically. And reducing these issues to a discussion about “crazy mothers” was not only far too simplistic, it was also incredibly dehumanizing. I imagine that watching that scene as a parent with a mental illness had to be really painful, actually, and I’m incredibly disappointed by it.

The same goes with Claire’s characterization in general. In a lot of ways, I really, really love the new Claire. She’s a whole lot more interesting and badass than old Claire. But they’re also really playing up the whole OMG “CRAZY” angle in a way that’s making me very uncomfortable. (A couple hours after we had this conversation on Wednesday, meloukhia put up a post at her blog discussing these issues some more.)

LAUREN: You nailed it. It was such a simplistic, prescriptive warning against the dangers of “craziness” — which entail what, exactly? and what is crazy? and are you really qualified to tell me, Writers of Lost? — that I was left cold by the whole dialogue. Also, one definition of sexism in my book is “pat pseudo-psychological explanations of antisocial behavior that place blame at Mommy’s feet, see also: Freud.”

SALLY: That scene was really awkward, not just because of what was being said, but Flocke’s emotion in it and then Kate’s reaction to it. It seemed very… false. Not bad acting false, but more like “what is this doing here?” false. I like to think it’s because at the very least Terry O’Quinn is bothered by what the writers are doing as well.

Flocke sends Sawyer on a recon mission to Hydra Island. There, he finds Widmore and his people. What do you think they have planned?

LAUREN: I don’t feel like I know enough about Widmore’s intentions — or Jacob and Smokey — to make a call here. Why did Widmore have to kill all the Ajira survivors? Or did he? When Smokey says he just wants to go home, where is home? Why do they have to prevent him from going home? Is Widmore in this for Jacob, Smokey, or himself?

CARA: I’m honestly pretty surprised that Widmore and Smokey are apparently on opposite sides. I was expecting it to end up looking something like Ben/Jacob vs. Widmore/Smokey. Now it seems that it’s Widmore vs. Smokey but also Widmore vs. Ben. It’d be a little cool if defeating Smokey ended up requiring Ben and Widmore to work together. As for the Ajira survivors, I’m not sure if Widmore actually did kill them, but I definitely want to know who did.

SALLY: I initially thought that Smokey killed them, but he seemed surprised that Widmore was there, so now I think that’s not it. I, too, would like to see Widmore and Ben working together. It’d be a bit annoying if at this point there were more than two groups fighting it out. I’m not sure I could keep up with all the sides here. Then again, they couldn’t settle for a love triangle and needed to invent new dimensions to that, so I wouldn’t be surprised.

And, dun dun dunnnn – we’re finally getting our Richard episode! What do you hope they answer next week?

SALLY: I felt like singing and dancing from the rooftop when I saw the promo for next week. YAY RICHARD!

LAUREN: When I saw the promo I said out loud, “The Feministe panel is creaming their shorts right now.”

CARA: I believe that I have been vocally advocating for a Richard-centric episode since about Season 3. So, if it’s true, I am pretty much the happiest person ever. If once again, the promos are lying to us and leading us on, however, someone is going to get stabbed. I’m not saying who will be stabbed, or even who will be doing the stabbing! Simply that stabbing most definitely will occur.

As for what I’d like to see, I’d really like to know how exactly Richard was recruited by Jacob. And since we know that Richard has had previous interactions with Esau/Smokey/MIB/whatever we’re calling him now, I’d like to see that, too. I’m assuming that we’re going to break the structure of the season and see a flashback episode, anyway. I’m struggling to figure out how Richard could possibly have a flashsideways, as it would involve him not only having escaped the island before it sunk, but also continuing to not age off-island. I guess we shall see!

Sady basically said everything there is to say about the Lady Gaga and Beyonce Telephone video, but I wanted to direct Feministe readers to this interview with Heather Cassils, the Lady’s prison-yard make-out partner. She has some interesting things to say not just about Gaga, but about gender and queerness — and her interpretation of the “does Lady Gaga have a dick?” rumors, and Gaga’s response, seem fairly at odds with what we’ve discussed. Her comments about her own body as a tool of subversion, and her thoughts on how to create social change by inserting yourself into the machine, particularly struck me (even if I don’t necessarily agree that the second one is entirely correct).

Check it out, it’s worth a read.

Just so you know we haven’t forgotten this is not a Latino blog (sorry y’all, but these things are of interest to me), it’s St. Patrick’s Day! WOOHOO! Apparently this day means you are supposed to drink a lot and wear green and celebrate the Irish.

I don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but I’m sure some of you do, so please feel free to continue your celebration in the comments.

And if you need beer desserts for your partay, look no further! I found this post with yummy ideas for combining beer and dessert. That definitely sounds like my kind of party and I hope I don’t need St. Patty’s Paddy’s Day as an excuse for making any of those recipes. (sorry about that Suzy)

Also, I learned today that you are not to wear orange on St. Patrick’s Day because it’s the color of Protestants or something and our pal Patrick was a Catholic. Personally, I don’t own anything orange, but I figured I’d share that tidbit of info and educate the masses. You’re welcome.

In DR there’s this thing we do that I always find hard to explain to people who don’t do it because their reaction is basically “huhwha?” When you’re saying hi to somebody close to you who is older than you and/or is in some position of power/respect, you ask for their blessing. Like, that’s how you say hello. In Spanish it’s called pedir la bendicion, literally ask for the blessing. It goes something like this:

Me: Hi, please give me my blessing.
Them: Hi, this is me blessing you.

The words are hard to translate out of context, so it’s not quite that awkward, but it’s still kinda… weird.

Anywho, obviously when I was growing up, I thought this was standard, except then I realized nobody else did it except my Latino friends, but most of them were Dominican. Now I’m curious to know, who the heck actually does this?! I know Dominicans do and so do most Puerto Ricans I know, does anybody else? As in, 1) other Latinos and 2) other cultures in general.

I guess the power dynamics of this have always been strange to me. My parents were pretty lax about it, so we’ve never really done it with them, but if any other relative or close friend of my parents’ was there and we didn’t do this, we’d get in serious trouble. It’s basically the equivalent of spitting in their face, apparently. But it’s just odd because most of these people I hardly ever see, and I’m not even a religious person so why on earth am I asking you for a blessing, just to be in your presence?

I also find (and this is completely anecdotal and maybe only applies to my family) that men hardly ever do it with each other. Men will ask the women in the family, and women ask the men, and women ask the women, but very rarely have I seen men ask men. Sure, boys still ask it of their fathers, uncles, grandfathers, etc. but it seems like the older guys get then the less blessing they need from men… or… something…

We haven’t done Feministe Feedback for a while, but a reader writes in with an interesting question for the peanut gallery. As a reminder, if you have a question that you want the Feministe community’s input on, email feministe@gmail.com with the subject “Feministe Feedback.”

Now, the letter:

I met this guy online a while back and we were internet buddies for good amount of time. He only lived a few towns over, but we never met, even though we exchanged numbers and texted each other pretty regularly. It wasn’t a romantic relationship at all, he was just a person I liked chatting with. When we talked, our sex lives would sometimes come up and once, when talking about a girl he was hoping to date, he asked, “is it bad that I hope she’s a virgin?” to which I responded yes, that’s kind of creepy. He got defensive and asked me to explain why I felt that way, but I found I couldn’t really explain myself other than to say it just felt predatory and wrong.

I don’t feel like it was abnormal of me to have this reaction, but I was surprised at how unable I was to articulate the “why” of it. Why does that idea feel so wrong to me? I don’t really expect an absolute answer to this issue, I would just like to hear other opinions on it from people I’m sure have better knowledge of feminism and women’s studies than me.

Needless to say, I’m no longer friends with this person. Dude had serious issues with women and trust and I did not need anymore negativity and baggage in my life.

I hope this wasn’t too indulgent and I’d love to hear your thoughts if you have the time. Thanks!

Send your Feministe Feedback questions to feministe@gmail.com.

I’m sure that by now many of you living in the U.S. have gotten your U.S. Census to fill out. I was really excited to get mine because I get really excited about things like that (voting and jury duty, for example – LOVE!).

I get to #5 which is all about being of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin and I’m like “OH SNAP! Latinos get their own section! HOLLER!” And then I get to #6 and it asks for your race and I’m like “OH SNAP! I HAVE NO RACE!”

Because at some point in time it was deemed necessary to separate the issue of race and ethnicity. Gone are the days of forms asking for race/ethnicity. Which is cool. Unless you’re Latino, because then you’re race-less… or, post-racial, for the optimistic folks.

Of course, this isn’t the first time I’ve encountered this. This has become an annoying part of online applications for jobs, schools, etc. The worst is when they don’t let you leave it blank because presumably one must have a race. And then they make you choose between White, Black, American Indian, Asian, or something like “I prefer not to answer.” Which is annoying, because I have no problem answering, but I just don’t feel any of these reflect my race…

See, Latinos are biracial, except not in the way we use the term today. Most Latinos have some combination of Native American, Black, and White in them because that’s just the history of our culture. But then there are Latinos who identify as Latino AND something else, which is more of the image we get when we think of biracial – one race AND another race.

So, um, what the hell? Where does that leave us? I really feel like labeling myself as Native American, Black, and White is a bit misleading. Sure, sometimes they give you Other as an option and then I can just list Latino again… except they’ve already decided that Latino isn’t a race…

Mi gente, what do the rest of you do when you get to this question? And not to leave out my non-USians, with the various race/ethnicity issues in your own cultures, how the heck do you keep it all straight?!

In the meantime, I’ll go ahead and find me a Presidente and jam to Juan Luis Guerra, just because.

Jezebel has a Feminist Play List of five feminism-inspired songs, and they pick some good ones. But I know Feministe readers are primo Insufferable Music Snobs, so add your selections in the comments. And maybe the most fun thing about making this list? There are so many more than five songs to choose from. Feminism win.

My five:

Thao – Swimming Pools

Bikini Kill – Rebel Girl

Queen Latifah – UNITY

Loretta Lynn – The Pill

Madonna – Human Nature

Leave your suggestions in the comments.