Thank you, Slog tipper Casey, for sending along this story roundup of women getting items stuck in their vaginas. It is an eye opener:

Anna advised that I squat on the floor like one of those natural childbirth La Leche people, and it worked. It was there. It was far. I had never reached that far. It was gross-far, nearing the anus zone far. The tampon was soaked. I dripped on the floor. It was thick and brown and foul. I wanted to say it smelled sort of like Vegemite tastes, but that's too kind. I wanted to say it reeked of August at the Pearl River Harbor, where I'd lived as a kid and where my brother had sworn he'd seen a dead body floating. It was so much worse, though. The only odor I really felt was equivalent was a Cantonese street food called "stinky tofu," a fermented tofu renowned for smelling like rotting fish meets sewage meets Black Death. (Hong Kong motto: why worry how foul something seems when you put it inside you if you know you'll manage to make it nastier on its way out?) Every droplet on the floor seemed to unleash the stench of a mile long stretch of stinky tofu stalls, and every few minutes it would be too much to bear and I'd have to wash my hands and spray more Glade start over again.

Two years later, Tkacik wrote about losing a second tampon in her vagina...

I once had to help a very good friend remove a sea sponge from her twat but I'll spare you the gory details (okay, one gory detail: spaghetti tongs). The article cites women's vaginas consuming tampons, a live slug (!!!), dimes, a cell phone, even garlic with the unforgiving finality of the La Brea Tar Pits. I had no idea this was a common occurrence, let alone a social epidemic.

This cartoon, courtesy of Slog tipper Bill, is not only a great response to the Steubenville rape trial, it's spun me off into fantasies about dressing like a giant pink uterus who stalks through town, egging rapists with my righteous fallopian arms.

Obviously, since my fallopian arms would be full of eggs, and egging rapists is thirsty business, I would need to be wearing a beer hat. OBVIOUSLY.

I haven't written about the ongoing Steubenville rape trial here on Slog—even though I know you guys have been HOWLING for more rape coverage—because reading about it makes me want to drink heavily in my crying closet. But it's important, so here we go.

Texts from the NYT:

"Swear to God I don't remember doing anything with them," the girl wrote to a friend, a boy who authorities say saw the assaults. "I wasn't being a slut. They were taking advantage of me."

In a text to a boy who lives in the house where the second attack is said to have happened, Mays wrote: "Just say she came to your house and passed out."

The coach "took care of it," Mays said in one text introduced by prosecutors.
"Like he was joking about it so I'm not worried," Mays said in another text.

Testimony from CNN:

One of the witnesses, a 17-year-old, told Judge Thomas Lipps that he used his cell phone to record Mays putting his fingers inside the girl's vagina during a drive from one party to another. The boy said he deleted the video the next morning when he realized it was wrong.

... The teen also told the court Mays later attempted to have the girl perform a sex act on him in the basement of a home, where they ended up after the initial alleged incident in the car.

"She didn't really respond to it," he said.

One [text] message asked Mays: "Did u do it?"
He responded, according to [a computer forensic investigator named Joann] Gibb: "No, lol. She could barely move."
Still another graphic message from Mays to a friend appeared to detail his anger over being accused of rape.
"I'm pissed all I got was a hand job, though. I should have raped since everyone thinks I did," the message said, according to Gibb.

I keep returning to this point: Regardless of whether 16-year-old Ma'Lik Richmond and 17-year-old Trent Mays are found guilty as charged of digitally penetrating the allegedly drunk teen in their company (an act that constitutes rape in Ohio), there's no question in my mind that she was thoroughly degraded. Re-read those text messages. Look at that blurry photograph that shows her being slung around like big game, or dead meat. A trophy. Plenty of people took notice of her that night but seemingly didn't attempt to stop what was happening (if they tried, we have to assume it wasn't very hard).

Perhaps Richmond and Mays were prompted by malice when they decided to cart her around all evening, or perhaps they were raised to believe that women really are humanish playthings and this was their fucked-up version of a lighthearted game. The end result was the same—this poor teenager was objectified and humiliated by seemingly everyone she came into contact with that night. She was in a bad situation, she needed help, and she didn't receive it.

Even if Richmond and Mays are found guilty, how do you find peace after a betrayal of that magnitude? When what feels like half a town witnessed you helpless, and vulnerable, and failed to act? When you can't remember what was done to you? When you'll never know for certain what exactly happened?

This is fucking terrible:

BISMARCK, N.D. — The North Dakota Senate on Friday approved banning abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, sending what would be the most stringent abortion restrictions in the U.S. to the state’s Republican governor for his signature.

The measure would ban most abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected, something that can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The House already approved the measure. Gov. Jack Dalrymple generally opposes abortion but has not said whether he will sign the bill into law.

To put things in perspective:

so we are clear, North Dakota just banned abortion less than 2 weeks after a missed period. In a state with 1 clinic. w/24hr wait

— robinmarty (@robinmarty) March 15, 2013

If North Dakota Governor Dalrymple signs this bill into law, it'll basically ban abortion in North Dakota.

Despite assuring women that he totally supports a bill requiring insurance carriers to equally cover pregnancy and abortion costs in their insurance plans—and will do whatever he can to get the recently passed House bill passed in the Senate—State Senator Rodney Tom (Fucking Weasel, Medina) has instead maneuvered to effectively kill the bill.

You see, as Senate Majority Leader (a position he also attained with his weasely prowess), Tom is responsible for assigning bills to the appropriate Senate committees. And instead of assigning the Reproductive Parity Act to the Senate's Financial Institutions, Housing & Insurance committee where it was promised a fair hearing and vote from the committee's Democratic chair, Tom instead sent the bill to the Senate's Healthcare Committee, headed by anti-choice Sen. Randi Becker (R-Eatonville).

Becker has scheduled a hearing on the bill for April 1, but given that her nine-person committee includes five Republicans, and only one Republican senator has stepped up to support this legislation (Sen. Steve Litzow—who's not part of the healthcare committee), there's little hope of the RPA making it to the Senate floor for a vote.

Christ, what a rat-faced weasel Tom is.

I know I should be angry about this poster, which basically argues that women's bodies—like the one I'm wearing now!—are public playgrounds. But it reads as if whoever designed it doesn't have a solid grasp of what words mean. (Which religion? Faith and reason, wha? How is "my body, my choice" contradicted by science???).

I see terms like "modern myth," and "contrary to both faith and reason," I feel both charmed and flattered. I'm a unicorn! All women capable of independent thought are unicorns! And the thing about unicorns is, only an idiot would be caught arguing with them.

• Slog tipper z.

From what I can deduce via the internets, the man who's slapping these up around Ballard is probably a security guard for Seattle Pacific University who says he graduated from "Life University." So, you know, no surprises there.

Thanks to slog tipper z.

This morning, after a bit of hand-wringing musical theater from Republicans, the U.S. House of Reps finally did its job and passed the Senate's version of the Violence Against Women Act. The vote was 286 to 138. Eighty-seven Republicans voted in favor of the bill; no Democrats voted against it. Now all it needs is Obama's signature to seal the deal.

This is a huge victory for our Washington state Senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, who lobbied hard to get the bill passed. A little history from the Washington Post:

The law has been renewed twice before without controversy, but it lapsed in 2011 as it was caught up in the partisan battles that now divide Congress. Last year, the House refused to go along with a Senate-passed bill that would have made clear that lesbians, gays, immigrants and Native American women should have equal access to Violence Against Women Act programs.

It appeared the scenario would be repeated this year when the House introduced a bill that didn’t mention the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and watered down a Senate provision allowing tribal courts to prosecute non-Indians who attack their Indian partners on tribal lands.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., who has spent months working on the issue, defended the Republican plan: “Our goal in strengthening the Violence Against Women Act is simple. We want to help all women who are faced with violent, abusive and dangerous situations. ... We want them to know that those who commit these horrendous crimes will be punished.”

"This is a major victory for women and especially for Native, LGBT, and immigrant women," said Chris Stearns, chairman of the Seattle Human Rights Commission. "Combined with the pounding the Republicans took at the polls from women, Hispanics, blacks, and Native Americans, they had no choice this year to start dealing. The possibility of losing elections for the forseeable future meant that the House leadership had to change their strategy or face extinction. In short, the [2012] election changed everything."

Oh hey! Good news ladies! After thoughtful prayer, Republicans in Indiana have decided that women seeking abortions only need one unnecessary vaginal probe with every abortion, instead of two!

Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, sponsored the move to drop the second ultrasound and replace it with a requirement that doctors perform "appropriate testing." Alting said that would give doctors the option of performing blood or urine tests on their patients.

"I think that physicians know a little bit more about that particular area than legislators," Alting said.

HAHAHA, YOU THINK?
Meanwhile, when it comes to male reproductivity:

Republicans turned aside proposed amendments from outnumbered Democrats that would have mandated certain medical exams before a doctor could prescribe erectile dysfunction drugs to men and would have extended requirements for abortion clinic facilities to offices that treat infertility and erectile dysfunction.

Priorities!

Daily Kos notes that the amended bill passed the Indiana state Senate yesterday and now heads to the state's Republican-controlled House for a vote.

Thanks again to Slog tipper Bill.

Check out this chart at Washington Post.

As Dylan Matthews writes: "Interestingly, many blue collar professions—such as cafeteria work, security guard work, and warehouse stock clerking—are the most egalitarian in their compensation, while female white collar professionals like doctors, stock brokers, and insurance saleswomen face among the worst pay gaps around."

The one that surprises me is "retail sales." Women earn 64.3 percent what men earn in that field.

Face palm:

A college sophomore at the University of North Carolina is being sent to the school’s “Honor Court” and may be expelled for speaking publicly about her rape.

University officials are alleging that Landen Gambill is being “disruptive” or “intimidating” her rapist by going public with her story of sexual assault, despite the fact that Gambill has not even publicly identified her rapist.

Well, fuck. I'm totally speechless.