My apologies for putting off the Weekend Reads for a few weeks, but I’ve got some excellent stuff to get us back in the habit.
THE HEARTLAND: I don’t know why I haven’t seen much about this yet in my corner of the blogosphere, but Iowa is the first midwestern state to legalize gay marriage. GO IOWA!
RAVEN’S EYE: At the brand new blog (okay, a few weeks old since I’ve been running late) Raven’s Eye, there is an excellent essay on quilting as art and an act of resistance. Raven’s Eye is a group blog for women of color, cis and trans, that seeks to represent more WOC’s lived experiences. It’s a great read with lots of prestigious bloggers taking part.
KNOW YOUR COMPANY: Kyle Payne, “feminist” blogger and “ally” turned sexual predator, is out of jail and back to blogging like nothing happened at all. Renegade Evolution and Natalia Antonova have some words for him.
DIY ABORTION: Wisconsin teens have turned to animal medication to induce abortion, and conservatives are predictably blaming liberals instead of asking why teenagers don’t have access to safe, accredited health care.
BYSTANDER BEHAVIOR: When a woman in Queens was raped at a subway station, two transit workers stood by and opted not to intervene. Later, when she sued them for not answering her cries for help, a judge “concluded a token clerk and a subway conductor had no responsibility to intervene and were following work rules by not confronting the rapist.”
LEGENDARY LATINAS: Frau Sally Benz put together a whole slew of excellent posts on influential Latinas, starting with Frida Kahlo. Check them all out here.
PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE: Or are they? It’s disturbing what this police chief considers “people” — “If I see three or four young black men walking down the street, I have to stop them and check their names,” said [Homer, Louisiana Police Chief Russell] Mills, who is white. “I want them to be afraid every time they see the police that they might get arrested. We’re not out there trying to abuse and harass people, we’re trying to protect the law-abiding citizens locked behind their doors in fear.” — and until this culture changes police and state brutality will not stop.
CODIFYING MALE PRIVILEGE: Aunt B. has a thoughtful post on why it’s necessary to pass MRA-styled laws for family courts that aim to, literally, protect men from women, when men in the family court system can petition for joint custody or request paternity tests anyway, concluding that such laws preserve the vision that the world is men’s to glide through.
SAME ‘OL: I really do love the X-Files, Scully especially, but watching it again all these years later, I realized the gender roles are just as oppressive and banal as they are everywhere else on television.
NO. 1 LADIES’ DETECTIVE AGENCY: The new review at Racialicious is up, and having seen it myself their review is right on. It’s a sweet show with lots of potential, and Jill Scott and Anika Noni Rose make a diabolical pair. The only thing Latoya didn’t touch on: the horrible accents. (For further reference on rillah bad accents in premium programming, see True Blood.)