On 5/16, the House is expected to vote for the Republican version of VAWA. Call your rep. ASAP to oppose this bill and urge open debate on the House floor. Unless this bill is amended to restore important protections, NOW will consider a Yes vote a vote against VAWA.

Being able to connect with family members on Mother's Day is important to so many of us. But, for the more than two million people incarcerated in the United States, that connection can come at a steep price. We want justice for prisoners! Tell the FCC to address the high cost of prison phone calls.

NOW Foundation, IWPR, and the NCPSSM Foundation briefed congressional staff on their research examining the challenges facing elderly women and their families in the U.S. Their report, 'Breaking the Social Security Glass Ceiling: A Proposal to Modernize Women's Benefits,' also proposes initiatives to ensure Social Security benefits are adequate for all Americans, particularly for women and women of color.

NOW applauds President Obama's announcement today supporting marriage equality. This marks a proud moment in history, and is an especially welcome antidote to yesterday's vote in N.C. enshrining discrimination into that state's constitution. We commend the president for standing with the LGBT community and millions of others in this country who support marriage for same-sex couples.

The National Organization for Women condemns the vote today in the House Judiciary Committee. In a 17-15 vote, the Republican-controlled committee passed a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act that completely undermines the spirit of the landmark bill passed 18 years ago.

The National Organization for Women urges North Carolinians to vote against "Amendment One" as they head to the polls on May 8. The proposed measure would amend the state's constitution to say "Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in the state."

With the radical right waging a war on women in Congress and statehouses across the nation, it is more important than ever that we elect feminist candidates to office this November. We need candidates like Elizabeth to shut down this offensive and get the United States moving in a positive direction.

The National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women, of which NOW is a member, issued this release explaining why "a vote for amendments and substitutes is a vote against VAWA."

Media Outlet: Newsweek and The Daily Beast

The Offense: The cover photograph shows a woman who is styled to look like a high-fashion model. She is blindfolded with a large black sash tied in a bow at the back of her head. Her bare shoulders and the top portion of her chest are visible. The caption says: "The Fantasy Life of Working Women | Why Surrender is a Feminist Dream."

NOW's Analysis: Media outlets have a long history of glamorizing women's submission. Typically the fashion industry is guilty of this practice, but news outlets aren't afraid to employ the same strategy. Under the theory that titillation sells magazines, combined with the belief that objectifying women makes you seem edgy, consumers end up with junk like this on the newsstands (and the Internet).

It's hard to tell what's more offensive. The haute couture style of the cover photo, which presents the blindfolding of a woman as elegant and refined. Or the accompanying article, which uses the popularity of the book "Fifty Shades of Gray" -- which Katie Roiphe describes as the "skinny-vanilla-latte version of sadomasochism" -- to speculate that women are not comfortable with power and might even find it boring.

Roiphe considers whether women are exhausted by the "relentless responsibility" of their modern lives. She proposes that women are rebelling against "the pressure of economic participation" and their own "strength and independence and desire" -- that's why they're drawn to the idea of "sexual surrender." The article attempts to support its premise with the not terribly precise estimate that "between 31 percent and 57 percent of women entertain fantasies where they are forced to have sex" (according to Psychology Today).

Picture for a moment a mainstream magazine arguing that men feel there is something "basically liberating about being overcome or overpowered." Imagine a male author positing that men have an "incandescent fantasy of being dominated." And try, just try, to envision that cover with a blindfolded male model.

Is it paranoid to suggest that Newsweek and Roiphe intentionally portray women as fearful of equality in order to grease the wheels for rolling back their rights? Is it too extreme to suggest that the cover image and the article work together to convey the message that women want to throw in the towel on being in charge of their sexuality and their lives in general? Would it be going too far to characterize articles like this as contributing to a cultural environment where it's not so bad when men physically assault women, even rape them, because that's what women really want?

Roiphe argues that feminists are "perplexed" by the persistence of dominance/submission fantasies, but when Gloria Steinem tries to explain it, Roiphe shrugs her off, writing that "maybe sex and aggression should not, and probably more to the point, cannot be untangled." Sure sounds like a writer with an agenda that's hostile to women's empowerment and safety. Not to mention the fact that Roiphe never asks why men might want to dominate and hurt women, and what that might say about them.

That this magazine rolled off the presses just as advocates are struggling to get the Violence Against Women Act reauthorized in Congress should make even the most trusting person stop and think.

Take Action: Write to Newsweek at letters@newsweek.com and tell them what you think about this cover story. And put pressure on the Senate to reauthorize VAWA.

This post is part of the #HERvotes blog carnival on the Violence Against Women Act.

The latest Social Security trustees report projects that the system has a surplus of $2.7 trillion and revenue sufficient to pay all benefits through 2033. Those bent on dismantling and/or privatizing the system will try to twist these facts, but don't be fooled Social Security is financially sound, and it's even possible to improve benefits to meet the realities of today's families.

The National Organization for Women is launching the "Enough Rush" campaign, which aims to deliver the powerful message to Rush Limbaugh and his apologists that bullying is no longer profitable.

Send President Obama a message in support of equal pay: Urge him to issue an executive order that will protect employees of federal contractors against retaliation for disclosing or asking about their wages.

Today is Equal Pay Day, the day when U.S. women's average earnings finally catch up with the amount men were paid on average in the previous year. That means that women must have worked more than 600 hours into 2012 to attain the same pay men received in 2011.

Pretty horrifying, right? Well, at least we don't do that anymore. Or so we'd like to think. Soon afterward, a reader wrote in to tell Wade about this:

Yeah, that's real. That's a candy package featuring a covered-up, dewy-eyed white princess advertising the vanilla flavor and a bedroom-eyed black princess -- the only one in the Disney canon -- in a strapless dress advertising watermelon. This packaging was produced by a Fortune 100 company in 2012.
So much for this symbolism being a historical curiosity. Worse yet, notice how Princess Tiana's bare shoulders and direct, sultry stare contrasts with the demure styling and shy smile of Sleeping Beauty. This calls to mind the racist stereotype of Jezebel, the sexually insatiable black woman, which was used to justify the rape of black women and even to deny that it was possible to rape a black woman.

I've been in rooms where marketing decisions were made. Even in small organizations, several people -- from the big boss to the marketing staff to the graphic designer -- got a look at any product that would see the light of day. I'm not sure which possibility is more disturbing: that no one among Disney's highly educated and qualified staff objected to this, that someone did notice and didn't feel safe objecting, or that someone did object and got shot down. And these are the more charitable options! The ugliest possibility is that someone with decision-making power thought this was funny -- when a 10 second search on the Internet would have told them how horrifying it was.

Whatever actually happened inside the Magic Kingdom during this decision-making process, any of these possibilities strongly suggests that Disney needs to require that every person who came anywhere near the design or production of this incredibly racist packaging needs some cultural sensitivity training pronto. NOW.

Why is this a big deal? Well, imagine you're the black mother of a black child, and you come across this candy at the grocery store. You're angry and sad. You think about your enslaved ancestors and how images like this were used to rationalize their sub-human status and justify unspeakable violence toward them. And now one of the most beloved and successful companies in the world is using it to sell your child candy. What do you say to your child? How do you begin to express all this in the middle of Aisle 12? What a horrible moment for any of the millions of black mothers in this country! And how unnecessary -- all it would have taken was one person at Disney saying, "Um, wait a minute, y'all …"

Are you furious yet? Because we are. So here's what you can do:

If you see this at a local retailer, let the manager know you find it offensive and ask that it be removed from the shelves. Use this online form to write to Disney -- tell them they need to apologize and should institute cultural sensitivity training to ensure that staff who make these kind of decisions act in keeping with Disney's stated anti-discrimination policy and do not engage in this kind of offensive symbolism.

If your local chapter is mad about this, go protest at your local Disney store! Make a petition asking the company to pull the product and mandate cultural sensitivity training, and get people to sign it. Send the petition to Robert A. Iger, President and CEO, The Walt Disney Company, 500 South Buena Vista St, Burbank, CA, 91521.

A House floor vote is coming soon on the dangerous anti-abortion rights Teen Endangerment Act, which could criminalize helping a teenage woman access legal abortion care outside of her home state. Tell your representative to vote NO on the "Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act" (H.R. 2299).