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

Month: December 2006

U.S. Marine Guilty of Raping Woman in the Phillipines

Another U.S. soldier is convicted of rape, this time in the Phillipines.

The article itself leaves a little to be desired. For example:

The court sentenced Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, 21, of St. Louis, to life imprisonment — which, in the Philippines, could mean up to 40 years in prison — for raping a drunken 23-year-old Filipina in November 2005 inside a former American naval facility in Subic, Pampanga, a province just north of Manila.

Apparently the fact that she was “drunken” is a key element in the story.

The defendants had claimed that what took place inside the van was sex between consenting adults and that the woman only cried rape because she wanted to salvage her reputation.

Now, I suspect that the reporter would argue that he used the term “cried rape” to characterize the defendents’ sentiments, not his own. But the way it’s phrased here is incredibly poor — and it makes it sound like “cried rape” is a factual statement, not an opinionated one.

I’m also not sure why she’s repeatedly referred to as “the Filipina” instead of, say, “the woman,” but I suppose repeatedly emphasizing her ethnicity is appropriately othering for American readers.

That aside, rape as a war tactic is nothing new; soldiers are groomed to associate sex with violence, within an already sexist and patriarchal military structure (thanks to Jessica for the article):

Read More…Read More…

BSG Discussion Thread — Episode 3.9 “Unfinished Business”

Take it away, BSG fans.

Don’t you wish there were more male-female fights so that the whole “Starbuck is a special case, even though this is a gender-neutral universe” thing didn’t pertain?

Does Kat have the Fleet’s most annoying voice, even when her hair is straightened and she’s otherwise unrecognizable?

And also: Was Adama such a damn buzzkill because he ran out of his stash?

Discuss.

Suicide Bombing in Iowa– and the media is silent

On September 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks that devastated our nation, a man crashed his car into a building in Davenport, Iowa, hoping to blow it up and kill himself in the fire.

No national newspaper, magazine, or network newscast reported this attempted suicide bombing, though an AP wire story was available. Cable news (save for MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann) was silent about this latest act of terrorism in America.

Had the criminal, David McMenemy, been Arab or Muslim, this would have been headline news for weeks. But since his target was the Edgerton Women’s Health Center, rather than, say, a bank or a police station, media have not called this terrorism — even after three decades of extreme violence by anti-abortion fanatics, mostly fundamentalist Christians who believe they’re fighting a holy war.


Read the whole op/ed.

via. Thanks to Matt for the link.

ouch.

My hands hurt. I’ve been reupholstering my sofa all day. Only about half-finished, but it looks pretty good. Back, cushions and trim tomorrow.

Wielding a staple gun is a LOT more taxing than I’d realized.

Breaking: Rush Limbaugh is an Asshat Assberet*

Nothing new here, but in case you wanted reason 3872 to dislike him:

On the November 30 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, host Rush Limbaugh proclaimed: My “cat’s taught me more about women, than anything my whole life” because his pet cat “comes to me when she wants to be fed,” and “[s]he’s smart enough to know she can’t feed herself. She’s actually [a] very smart cat. She gets loved. She gets adoration. She gets petted. She gets fed. And she doesn’t have to do anything for it.”

As opposed to Rush, who toils in the fields all day for the wheat to make his own bread.

And as for his poor cat, she has to deal with an insufferable asshole 365 days a year. I’d say that’s something.

via the Daou Report.

*Thank you, evilfizz.