Congress says birth control is OK for wild horses, but not for women.

Which of these two would get birth control if the anti-choice leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives gets its way?

Politico and RH Reality Check are reporting that anti-choice Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana has introduced an amendment to a spending bill that would promote contraception--for wild horses.

This comes at the same time as the anti-choice House leadership is pushing to eliminate all funding for Title X, the nation's only domestic family-planning program for humans.

House members fighting to preserve a horse's right to birth control would be laughable, if they weren't trying to block women from accessing contraception at the exact same time.  You know what this move says??  It says that our own government considers the worth of a woman & her health to be less than that of a horse's.  Hey, Rep. Burton, Afghanistan called...they said they'd like you to give them back their views & opinions on women that you borrowed from them.

 

As a woman, I am utterly insulted.  And every other woman out there readig this should be insulted and outraged, too!

Ohio “Heartbeat” Bill Could Ban Abortion Just 18 Days After Conception!!

(As reported by Feministing)

Ohio lawmakers will soon introduce a new abortion bill that would make abortion illegal as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected, a move that some commentators say would mean a complete ban on abortion.

The “Heartbeat” bill will apparently be introduced later this month, right before Valentine’s Day (Get it? Hearts! Why let an unprecedented attack on women’s bodily autonomy get in the way of your seriously tacky marketing?) by Republican Representative Lynn Wachtmann. The bill is the first of its kind in the country, and if it passes we can expect copycats from other strictly anti-choice states like Texas and Oklahoma.  Robin Marty, writing at Alternet, explains why this bill would be tantamount to a complete abortion ban:

By establishing heartbeat as the criteria for banning abortion, the bill effectively rejects abortion from any point after roughly four weeks post conception, a time in which fetal heartbeat can be seen via high quality ultrasound machine. For most women, that would provide a window of two weeks or less in order to learn she was pregnant, make her decision about the pregnancy, arrange for an appointment, gather money for an abortion, obtain the mandatory counseling and sit through the required 24 hour waiting period. For a woman with irregular menstrual cycles, by the time she realizes she is pregnant it likely would already be too late to do anything but continue the pregnancy.

As Marty points out, this bill is, at first glance, less restrictive than the absurd “personhood” bills we’ve seen in the last few years, most notably in Colorado. Those bills grant constitutional rights to fertilized eggs and embryos, which of course do not have heartbeats. But the “heartbeat” bill is far more targeted at abortion than the personhood bills, which also inhibit IVF and some intrauterine contraceptive devices. While these lighter restrictions sound better to pro-choice ears, Marty sees them as a curse rather than a blessing. “With ‘Personhood,’ pro-choicers were able to hang all women’s autonomy together,” she says. “With ‘Heartbeat’ anti-choicers are trying to isolate women who want to terminate pregnancies, targeting them in isolation.”

If you are in Ohio and want to get involved in efforts to stop this bill, contact Planned Parenthood, which divides the state into Northeast, Southwest and Central Ohio. This is serious, and something I’ll be keeping a close eye on. If you’re in-state and want to get involved, don’t put it off!!

US Conference of Catholic Biships Speaking Out Against No-Cost Birth Control in the New Health-Reform Law

(As reported on NARAL's Blog For Choice)

More than 30 million American women need access to birth control. But, for many, it's simply too expensive. One in three women has struggled with the high cost of prescription birth control at some point in her life. 

Fortunately, the days of unaffordable birth control could end. Under the Women's Health Amendment, which is part of the health-reform law, contraception could be classified as preventive care. This means that it would be available to women at no cost in insurance plans that will be part of the new health-care system. 

NARAL Pro-Choice America cited this progress when Congress passed the health-reform bill last spring. Now we and our network of 21 state affiliates are making the push for no-cost birth control one of our top priorities this year. Donna Crane, our policy director, testified yesterday before a special panel appointed by the Institute of Medicine. She urged the panel to make birth control available at no cost, and explained that such a decision would mark a major step forward in helping women prevent unintended pregnancy:

In addition to bringing more than 30 million Americans into the health-care system, the federal health-reform law presents an unprecedented opportunity to improve women's access to comprehensive, preventive reproductive-health care by ensuring the affordability of family-planning services for all women. The current "system," such as it is, is expensive, uncoordinated, and, frankly, patchwork at best. Consequently, the United States has a far higher unintended-pregnancy rate than other industrialized countries.  Nearly half of all U.S. pregnancies are unintended, with more than three million unplanned pregnancies occurring each year.

Predictably, anti-choice forces, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Family Research Council, already are trying to block women's access to birth control. Their reasoning? According to one anti-contraception group, "We don't consider it to be health care, but a lifestyle choice."

NARAL Pro-Choice America will continue working to ensure that no-cost birth-control coverage is included as an essential part of the new health-care system. A decision on whether to include birth control as preventive care should come within the next year.

Mexican Women Convicted of Homicide for Abortion

(As reported on the Ms. Magazine Blog)



Six Mexican women have been sentenced to 25 to 30 years in prison on homicide charges for aborting their pregnancies.

Of the six unplanned pregnancies, two were because of rape. One woman miscarried. Activists say all six women, residents of the extremely conservative state of Guanajuato, were abandoned by the men who got them pregnant.

In this decade alone, more than 40 women have been put on trial for abortion in Mexico, a criminal offense that is punishable by up to three years in prison under the penal code.

Currently Mexico City is the only place in Mexico where abortions can be performed legally. In the last three years 40,000 women have undergone abortions in Mexico City and, of those, 1,200 have traveled to Mexico City from other states.

Reproductive rights groups in Mexico are fighting to expand abortion rights outward from the capital and to other parts of Mexico.

Marcy Bloom, an officer for the Informational Group on Reproductive Choice, GIRE, said:

The struggle for Mexican women’s reproductive rights is a very rough road, as it is for women and girls everywhere in the world, but I do believe that we will ultimately prevail as GIRE and other women’s groups in Mexico stay focused on working for women’s respect and access to legal and safe abortion for all.

GIRE played a critical role in the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico City in 2007.

14-Year-Old Bangladeshi Rape Victim Flogged To Death

(As reported on Ms. Magazine Blog)



Hena Begum, a 14-year-old old Bangladeshi girl, was publicly flogged recently in Shariatpur, 35 miles outside of the capital, Dhaka after being accused of having an affair with her 40-year-old old married cousin. According to the BBC, a village court made up of Islamic clerics and elders sentenced Begum to 100 lashes under Islamic Sharia law. The girl lost consciousness after 80 lashes and her family, who were also ordered to pay 50,000 taka (approximately $700), took her to the hospital where she died six days later.

“What sort of justice is this?” Begums father told the BBC.  “My daughter has been beaten to death in the name of justice. If it had been a proper court then my daughter would not have died.”
As for the “affair” accusation, Bangladesh’s Daily Star suggests that Begum was actually raped by the cousin.

Four people, including a Muslim cleric, have also been arrested in connection with Begum’s death and the police are looking for an additional 14 people who were involved. The country’s High Court has ordered officials in Shariatpur to explain why Begum was sentenced under Sharia law, since Sharia punishment was made illegal in October 2010. That’s when the High Court declared Bangladesh a secular state, making the issuing of fatwas illegal and a punishable offense.

Begum’s death is a testament to how, despite efforts by Bangladeshi women’s rights groups and civil society, the legal system in the country remains inaccessible for the majority of the population. It often fails to protect those who need it the most: women and children. Longtime Bangladeshi women’s rights activist and former Member of Parliament, Tasmima Hossain, explained the situation to me:

The legal system in our country has failed to reach the ordinary masses. Neither the Government nor the NGOs or any legal system is physically or financially accessible to 90 percent of the people. They cannot afford it. So the primitive Sharia law takes advantage of that in the name of salish, or arbitrary rulings like we have seen in the case of Hena Begum. The so-called mullahs and local village leaders take advantage of the situation in the name of religion.

The BBC reports that dozens of fatwas are issued under Sharia law each year by village clergy in Bangladesh, and this is the second death linked to Sharia punishment despite the practice being outlawed: In December, a 40-year-old woman died in the Rajshahi district after she was caned publicly for having an affair with her stepson.

A Common Sense Solution To A Never-Ending Debate

(Written by Miss Illinois US Beauties Jordan, published in the "Celebrating the Success of the Modern Woman Online Magazine" on 02/22/10)

For the past 40 years, America has been viciously divided over the issues of women’s reproductive rights and options, particularly the issue of abortion.  And with the recent battle over health care reform, our country is being torn apart even more by this issue.  As someone who has spent years studying history, politics, and social issues, I have watched both sides of this fierce debate battle head-to-head nonstop…and in the end, the outcome has changed very little.  Regardless of which side gains footing and gets their way, there are still approximately 3 million unwanted pregnancies in he US each year, and 1.3 million of those unwanted pregnancies end in abortion.  And that in itself is a tragedy. 

As a Realist and someone who tries hard to follow common sense, I have discovered that there is a very practical and very possible solution to this never ending battle that would produce results that would please BOTH sides of the debate.  Ultimately, both sides have a common goal, and that is for fewer abortions to occur.  Both sides can agree that it would be far better for women if we didn’t have to find ourselves in the stressful situation of being faced with an unwanted pregnancy in the first place and having to go through with an abortion.  Any woman who has had one will tell you that they are expensive, time-consuming, and painful.  It seems that no matter where you go, no one can ever seem to reach an agreement on what to do to solve this divisive issue. So let me be the one to offer a winning solution to this battle.  Abortion bans do NOT end abortion or reduce the frequency of women seeking it, but here is what DOES: birth control…and lots of it. 

The solution is very simple: There will be no need for abortions to occur if women aren't getting pregnant in the first place. All forms of contraception need to be plentiful and readily available to anyone who needs them. Every woman of childbearing age who is sexually active needs to have easy access to affordable contraceptives. It should be covered by all health insurance carriers to ensure that women can afford it. There need to be more family planning clinics open in more locations so that women won't have to travel long distances to receive reproductive healthcare services and contraceptives, and so that women without health insurance can receive the services they need for free or at a reduced cost.  Emergency contraception should also be readily available to any woman who experiences a contraception failure, and it should be available at every pharmacy counter and offered at every hospital emergency room for women who have survived a sexual assault. Furthermore, every woman should be able to fill a prescription for birth control or purchase emergency contraception at any pharmacy without delay, hassle, or intimidation from a self-righteous pharmacist who can't mind his/her own business. I even advise women to keep a stock of Emergency Contraception stored in their home medicine cabinets to be used or given to a friend should a mishap occur. The general public also needs to be accurately informed about the purpose and use of Emergency Contraception: It is NOT an abortion pill. It will NOT terminate a pregnancy, it PREVENTS pregnancy from occurring. Emergency contraception is simply a highly concentrated dose of the hormones found in regular birth control pills that works to prevent pregnancy by temporarily stopping the reproductive cycle in its tracks so that ovulation and/or fertilization cannot occur. If a woman is already pregnant when she takes Emergency Contraception, it will not terminate her pregnancy.

The common tactic used to resolve the abortion debate is legislating bans on it.  However, banning abortion will NOT lessen or stop it, it will only send it back underground where it will be performed illegally in unsanitary conditions that will be gravely dangerous to women.   Studies have shown that women in countries where abortion is illegal are still seeking it in the same numbers as women seeking it in countries where it is legal.  According to this data, women faced with an unwanted pregnancy who want to terminate it are desperate enough that they are not deterred by the risks of an illegal, unsanitary abortion.  Many of them become gravely ill or injured—or even die—in the process.  For those who want to see abortion outlawed because it kills unborn children, they must realize that outlawing abortion will only double the number of lives lost by causing the mothers to die as well.  Birth control saves the lives of women and prevents unwanted lives from being conceived and then terminated.

In addition, teens should receive comprehensive, factual medically accurate sex education that teaches them everything they need to know about their bodies and how to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy and STD's. They should begin receiving this instruction at the onset of puberty when they begin to become curious about sex, and it should be repeated every year throughout their middle school & high school years until this important information is engrained into their brains. I am not advocating that we should ENCOURAGE young teens to experiment with sex. In fact, I think it's also important to talk about the benefits of abstinence. But the cold hard truth remains that many youth DO decide to have sex instead of waiting until marriage, no matter how much we may try to lecture, scare, or guilt-trip them into waiting. And so this is where the importance of frank, medically accurate information on safe sex comes into play. This is vital knowledge that will serve to keep them healthy and safe not only during their youth, but for the rest of their adult lives. This is not rocket science or some radical idea, folks. It's just basic common sense. Those who know how to protect themselves and effectively prevent pregnancy won't need to have abortions. If we want to reduce or eliminate the need for abortions, we must first make sure that every female has full access to the contraceptives that she needs and erase the shame & stigma that is still attached to the use of birth control and the knowledge of healthy sexual practices. This is 2010 and there is nothing dirty, shameful, or immoral about birth control. It is a basic human necessity and it is as normal as any other medication like penicillin. Having control over our own reproduction is a basic human right. It's what separates us from the animals in nature. And for those of you who think that teaching young people about contraception will only encourage them to have sex at an early age, think again. I received comprehensive sex education when I was in high school, and I even read up on everything I could find about sex and human reproduction just out of sheer curiosity....and I remained a virgin all throughout high school. Even though I chose not to have sex, I still wanted to know everything I could about it so that I would be armed with knowledge when the time came when I would be ready. Sex education didn't encourage me to have sex, it just made me wiser.  And that knowledge has served me well in my adult life. As I always say, the biggest enemy of us all is ignorance, and ignorance must be fought at every turn.

So whether you are “pro-choice” or “pro-life”, I urge you to listen to my words and join in the efforts to make sure that every woman has the contraception she needs to prevent unwanted pregnancies that will result in abortions. More birth control = fewer abortions!!!  Whichever side of the ideological fence you may be on, let’s make a REAL difference by doing something that will reduce/end abortion by eliminating the NEED for it!!  Anyone who truly cares about the lives & health of women and the lives & health of the children they bring forth will support the efforts to ensure that every child is a planned & wanted child and that women have the resources they need to become pregnant only when they WANT to in order to drastically reduce the number of abortions performed. This is not a radical approach to eliminating abortions, it's the common sense approach.

The "Sanctity" of Marriage??

(Written by Miss Illinois US Beauties Jordan)

If you have read in the news or online blogs lately, you might have seen that there is a storm sweeping across the country on the issue of gay marriage.  Several states have proposed or passed laws allowing gays the right to marry while other states are rejecting or striking down these new laws.  California seems to be the focal point of this issue, and the issue of gay marriage is expected to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court sometime in the near future, where a final official ruling will be made once and for all.

Amidst all of this debate over the issue of gay marriage, the main (and ONLY) argument that has been stated against allowing gays to marry is that it would “destroy the sanctity of marriage.”  Lame.  And it is that very argument that I must speak on right now in this blog.  What “sanctity” of marriage is the Right Wing talking about?!?!  What “sanctity” is there left to defend and protect in the institute of marriage?!?  I am not married, but I know many, MANY people who are married, and I have keenly observed married couples everywhere and listened to stories about their marriages…and divorces.  The number of people I know who are divorced is more than the number of people I know who are still married.  I I have observed the “wedding” craze that so many girls and young women are socialized by our culture into desperately wanting to get married…even if it means giving up on their own education, goals, and dreams.  I have heard many young women say, “I HAVE to get married and start a family by the time I’m 25 or else I’ll just die!!  My life will be ruined!”  

Gay marriage would not destroy heterosexual marriages… heterosexual couples are already destroying their own marriages.  There are people who get married at the slightest whim or in a reckless haste when they are bedazzled by lust and infatuation.  Everyone knows someone who got married by sudden impulse where their friends and family say, “It’ll never last.”  Too many young women are obsessed with the thought of the wedding itself and being a “beautiful bride” instead of focusing on what REALLY matters:  the marriage itself.  They are so busy obsessing and fantasizing about their dream wedding and all of the attention that being a bride will bring them that they are forgetting to ask themselves the important questions:  “Is this the right time in my life to settle down and get married?  Should I wait and finish all of my education first?  Is this really the man I want to spend the rest of my life with?   How will we deal with big issues and tough times that may happen in our marriage?  Will I be able to support myself if my husband were to die or leave me…. or if I suddenly had to leave him?”  If you make a decision that will affect the rest of your life, you better really think it through with a clear mind and not make the decision based on feelings, emotions, or the notions that the media/culture dictates.

Sadly, many young women aren’t even assessing whether or not they are ready to handle the monogamy that comes with marriage.  An old friend of mine recently told me about his own marriage experience.  He is 29 years old and already divorced after only 2 years of marriage.  He and his ex-wife had the $60,000 dream wedding that she had always wanted….and then she cheated on him with an old boyfriend only a month after their wedding.  I have already published an article discussing the low self-esteem affecting many of the young women in our culture and their need to validate their self-worth and gauge their physical attractiveness by how much attention they can attract from men.  When you enter into a committed relationship like marriage, the days of flirting with other men and actively seeking their attention are over and done.  The same goes for married men, too.  The only one you should be checking out, flirting with, or sleeping with is your spouse. For some people who have always had a hard time being monogamous, it can be even more challenging when they have taken marriage vows and have a spouse who isn’t around them all the time due to work, traveling, etc.  And that’s when the true test of commitment and maturity comes in.  It may be tough being married to someone who has to spend a lot of time away from you, but a truly committed wife or husband will stick it out and remain faithful to their spouse.  A good wife or husband would never even THINK of cheating on their spouse, especially just because their spouse isn’t around 24/7 to give them attention whenever they want it.  Marriage is not for quitters or for people who have no patience or run to mommy when things go bad.  Marriage is for mature adults who realize and understand that there will be some tough roads ahead when they make the commitment to spend the rest of their lives with someone, yet they are committed to staying the course.

I see no valid argument for denying gays the right to marry based on the fear that it would destroy the “sanctity of heterosexual marriage” when so many heterosexual couples are hastily marrying one-night-stands out of blinding lust, cheating on their spouses when they don’t get enough attention from them, and view being a bride and wife as something to brag about to non-married people.  There are homosexual couples who have been faithfully together for ten years or longer, yet they are not allowed to validate their love and commitment to each other through a legal marriage simply because they are both of the same gender.  Yet a heterosexual couple who just met and hooked up at a bar the night before can run to Vegas or the nearest courthouse and make vows to God that they won’t end up keeping to commit to each for the rest of their life.  It is a blatant, ugly, glaring hypocrisy.  I’m not saying that every gay marriage would be perfect and last forever, but heterosexuals have no business preaching about the sanctity of marriage and excluding gays from it when we ourselves have made a mockery out of the institution of marriage with our own bad behavior.  If the "sanctity" of marriage is the only argument we have to use against the legalization of gay marriage, then we better come up with a better argument QUICK lest we want to continue to looking like complete bigoted hypocrites!  Before we heterosexuals get on our high horses and begin preaching about the “evils” of gay marriage and the damage it will cause to the institution of marriage, we need to take a long hard look at the damage WE are doing to the institution of marriage.

To All The Men In The World, Please Forgive Me...

(Written by Miss Illinois US Beauties Jordan, published in the "Celebrating the Success of the Modern Woman Online Magazine' on 02/08/10)

To all of the men in the world, please forgive me…

Forgive me demanding the respect that every female deserves.

Forgive me for wanting to be equal to you instead of beneath you.

Forgive me for being a strong woman who stands up for myself and what I believe in instead of "doing what is expected of me" as a woman.

Forgive me if my appearance is not perfect in every way. I don't look like the women you see in Playboy Magazine. I don't have blonde hair, my hair and skin are quite dark.  My breasts aren't a size DD, they are only average size. My facial features aren't perfect like an actress or a supermodel's; they feature traces of another ethnicity. I am not tall and willowy, or even close to being a normal sized person. In fact, I am much shorter and smaller than possibly any other woman you will ever meet. As time goes by, I will slowly age and lose whatever beauty I have. My skin will slowly become dull and wrinkled, my breasts and backside will start to sag, and there will be fat and cellulite in places where there wasn't any before. After many years, I may no longer resemble the woman I was when I was young.

Forgive me if I request that you be my partner in a committed relationship before you are allowed to sleep with me. As a human being and a woman, I deserve to be loved and respected and not treated as an object to be used for someone else's pleasure. Even though we may live in a world in which a female's attractiveness and worth is based on her sex appeal and willingness to engage in sexual activity, I still believe that my body is sacred and should only be shared with those who treasure and respect it as much as I do.

Forgive me if I am not a replica of your ex-girlfriend or ex-wife. I cannot look like she did, act like she did, or do things exactly the same way she did them. I cannot be someone else's replacement, nor would I want to be. I don't want to take another woman's place in your life; I want to have my own special place in your life. I cannot be her; the only woman I can ever be is myself.  I'm sorry that you will have to accept me as myself and expect me to be no one else other than myself.

Forgive me if I don't make a lot of money or come from a wealthy family who can give me anything I want. I don't drive expensive cars or live in a beautiful mansion. What little I have wasn't handed to me; I had to work very hard to earn it. I can't give you a luxurious life or buy you expensive gifts. All I can do is gladly share with you what little I have and give you my love and care, which will never run out as money and riches eventually do. I can't buy you a beautiful mansion, but I can turn the house we have into a comfortable home filled with love, security, and peace where you can come home to every day.

Forgive me for honoring values such as fidelity, honesty, or keeping promises…and forgive me for expecting those same values from you. Forgive me if I ask you to remain faithful to me even when there are other women all around us who are far more beautiful than me. Forgive me if I am determined to hold us together through the difficult times instead of just calling it quits when things get tough. I'm a person who believes in fighting to keep something good alive and putting forth effort to make something work when I think it's worth it, even if the rest of the world doesn't believe in this anymore.

Forgive me if I like to do simple little favors for you such as making a hot meal for you to eat, taking care of you when you are sick, supporting you in all your goals and achievements, or offering you a shoulder to cry on in your times of sorrow. These aren't things I would do to try to smother you or annoy you; these are just things I would do to show that I care for you. They have no monetary value and can't be shown off to others like expensive gifts can, but they come from my heart. Please don't think of them as meaningless, for I would never offer anything I thought was meaningless to someone I care about.

Forgive me for requesting that you not assume I will hurt you or be dishonest towards you simply because someone else did. Even though you may have been hurt or betrayed by another woman before, I am not her. I cannot hurt the ones I love. You won't need to question my motives, or where I go or what I do when you are not around me. I will hide nothing from you; I will gladly share with you all my secrets, personal facts, and stories. I will not abandon you or cheat on you when things get tough; I will be your steadfast rock that you can lean on during your times of trouble.

To all the men in the world who have chosen another woman over me, forgive me for all of these faults of mine and for everything I am and for everything I am not. If you are looking for perfection, then you are wise to pass me up, because I am far from perfect. My physical appearance is flawed, I can't give you every material possession you could ever want, I can't be a clone of another important woman in your past, I hold onto old-fashioned outdated values, and sometimes I will do things for you that most people view as meaningless and unimportant. It's easy to see why so many potential mates have passed me up for a better woman.  A less-than-perfect woman like me is not something that most men want to be with. I understand how easy it is to choose the buxom blonde bombshell who enjoys engaging in casual, non-committed sex, or the wealthy princess who has everything in the world and wants to be spoiled and pampered by her man every waking moment, or the weak woman who is content to be a doormat and let a man tell her what to do. But if there is ever a man out there with a big enough heart to choose me and accept me as I am, then I promise it will be more than worth it for him.

A True Princess

(Written by Miss Illinois US Beauties Jordan, published in the "Celebrating the Success of the Modern Woman Online Magazine" on 12/14/09)

Anyone who has a daughter or a young female relative knows how popular Princesses are among little girls these days.  The explosion of what I call Disney Princess “paraphernalia” has mostly brought this about.  Even teenage girls love the idea of being a Princess.  One of my signature quotes is “Every girl between the ages of 3 and 90 wants to wear a crown on her head.”  But amidst all of the little girls and young women walking around with toy crowns on their heads and inserting the word “Princess” in front of their names, I wonder to myself if anyone knows what being a Princess really means?  From my own observations, I think that many girls have an idea of what they believe a Princess is…a beautiful woman in a crown who has a perfect life and gets whatever she wants and can do whatever she wants…but that perception is far from the true definition of what it means to be a Princess.  That is why I would like to illustrate the true meaning of being a Princess.

A Princess does not always get her way, but instead knows and accepts that rules must be followed and that disappointments & losses happen in life.  Being a Princess does not mean always being the center of attention; a Princess knows when to step aside and share the limelight.  A Princess does not tear down her fellow ladies in order to feel better about herself, but instead supports them in their endeavors and praises their accomplishments & attributes…even if they outshine her own.  Being a Princess does not mean living a life of leisure; but rather it is a lifetime commitment of service to others.  A Princess does not ignore or promote the suffering or injustice of others, but works tirelessly to fight suffering and injustice wherever she sees it.  Being a Princess does not mean having all of the best material possessions in the world for herself; a Princess is willing to share what she has with someone in need.  A Princess does not need revealing clothing, tanning, or tons of make-up to make her feel beautiful, because she already knows that her true beauty shows itself from within.  A Princess does not brag about what she possesses or has accomplished, because she knows that her accomplishments speak for themselves.  A Princess does not have to work hard to get attention from people; she can command attention by simply walking into a room with her head held high.  And most importantly, a Princess does not take for granted her high rank or title and use it to look down upon others, belittle others, or cause suffering to others.  A Princess knows that her title is a privilege and uses it for good purposes wherever she can as a token of gratitude towards God and those who bestowed it upon her.