In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Quick hit: Still “presidential,” y’all?

Trump has spent the first not-even-six months of his presidency showing exactly how crass, juvenile, reactionary, impulsive, and vindictive he is in all aspects of his personal life and his presidency. Conduct becoming the presidency? It sure is if you ask him. And public figures left and right were certainly all about his presidentiality four months ago.

Creeptastic: Donald Trump still awful, still fixated on women’s blood

Breaking news: Donald Trump is crass, reactive, vindictive, and obsessed to a disturbing extent with women bleeding, and these are desirable qualities in a president as evidenced by the fact that three million fewer voters elected “a fighter.” This time, it’s a tweet attacking Mika Brzezinski for getting a facelift and bleeding from her face and wanting to come to Mar-a-Lago, or something, and I don’t even know, but apparently it’s okay because they started it, which is apparently acceptable for the president, because this is the world we live in.

Bill Cosby plans to hold town halls about sexual assault… accusations

New from the “Fox to Hold Town Halls About Henhouse Security” Department: Bill Cosby, recent recipient of a mistrial in the sexual assault case against him (prosecutors intend to retry), plans to host a series of town halls about not committing sexual assault. Hahaha, no, the town halls will be about sexual assault and the legal system, or specifically not being the victim of lying bitches accusing you of sexual assault.

I saw Wonder Woman, and you should, too.

I saw Wonder Woman last night, and here’s the completely spoiler-free part of my review: You should go see it. We saw it in IMAX 3D, and I would pay IMAX 3D money to see it that way again. The Boy said he would just as happily have watched it at home after it hits Redbox, but he still liked it and thought it was cool.

The important thing is that the action was great, the story was believable and touching, the characters were three-dimensional, the character arcs were compelling, and there were some parts where I teared up. (I also teared up at the commercial where the parents put the lion’s mane on the dog, so take that as you will.) It’s really good. You should see it. I’m serious, you should.

Read on for spoilers.

An Invitation for Meaningful Dialogue

There’s been a lot of talk lately about dialogue and understanding. Liberals just need to try to understand conservatives, They say. People get defensive when you call them (or, more often, even just imply that they might be) bigots, They say. If we want to get anything accomplished, we need to meet conservatives halfway, (in which “halfway” is usually defined as “on their side”), They say. Generally, the response from the liberal camp is, “Fuck that shit.” You can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into. It’s hard and unsatisfying, and maybe the New York Times needs to do a Dialogue and Understanding piece about people who are being asked to take on that struggle. That said, dialogue can happen. Here’s how.

Locker Room Watchlist: These are the GOP gym rats to avoid

Since the release of a video featuring Donald Trump unwittingly speaking into a hot mic about how great it is that his celebrity allows him to nonconsensually grab women’s genitals without consequence, Trump has thrice dismissed the celebration of sexual assault as “locker room banter” or “locker room talk.” Pro athletes across the U.S. have united to say that, in fact, such banter is not acceptable in any of the locker rooms they frequent. (You can take that with as many grains of salt as you choose.) But it raises the question: If that banter isn’t happening in the locker rooms of the Dodgers or the Falcons or the Clippers, in which locker rooms is it taking place?