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

Month: January 2012

Hateful Girl Scout Mad That Girl Scouts Lets In Girls

“Wait, what?” you ask. “I thought the Girl Scouts was for girls?” And it is! But one California teen haz a mad because the Girl Scouts created a policy to let in all girls — including trans girls. She wants everyone to boycott Girl Scout cookies, because the Girl Scouts should be punished for not ostracizing a little trans girl from their organization. If you want to be extra-horrified, read the Baptist Press’s take on the issue. And then make yourself feel better by ordering a few extra boxes of Samoas this year.

Why I Am Pro-Choice

Trigger warning for sexual assault, child abuse and violence.

I am a survivor of childhood incest, rape and kidnapping. It is for this reason that I understand what too many arrogant lawmakers cannot: A woman’s freedom to decide what happens to her body (and mind), especially after it has been violated, is crucial to her physical, mental and emotional survival.

New Favorite Things

Jaclyn Friedman’s Unsolicited Advice column in GOOD. This week she advises Blue Ivy Carter:

One of the things that’s going to be especially weird, if the response to Shiloh Jolie-Pitt’s haircut is any indication, is that a non-trivial minority of the global population will soon consider what you do with your body and your sexuality their business. In fact, they’ve already started. Most people would welcome a new addition to their family as “the most beautiful baby in the world,” but in your case, perfect strangers are already being invited to assess that claim.

Vegetarian in the Midwest

I was a pescetarian for 11 years, from the time I was 10 until I was 21. Luckily I grew up in Seattle, which is about as vegetarian-friendly as a city gets (and offers a lot of seafood options) — and then I moved to New York, which is still very veggie-friendly. But even there, I ate a lot of plain pasta or baked potatoes when out to dinner in group settings. My parents are also from Chicago, so we took regular trips to visit family in the Midwest, and on one of our drives through rural Illinois sometime in the mid 1990s we stopped, for lack of any other options, at a Burger King drive-though. I ordered a veggie burger, which Burger Kings had in Seattle. My parents and sister got hamburgers. When my burger came, I opened the buns, and saw that it was empty, except a slice of tomato and some lettuce. My dad handed it back to the cashier and said, “I’m sorry, I think you forgot the patty.” The woman, confused, said, “I thought you wanted a veggie burger?” And my dad, confused, said, “We did… we wanted a veggie patty. You know, like a gardenburger?” And the woman responded, “But if it has a patty it’s not going to be a veggie burger.”

Hero of the Day

Samira Ibrahim.

When Samira Ibrahim makes a rare foray into the streets of her hometown of Sohag in Upper Egypt or to a demonstration on the streets of Cairo, she has the distinct feeling of being watched.

“I never feel comfortable,” she said during in an interview in a Cairo cafe. “The only place I can feel like myself is in my home with my family. Everywhere I go, I feel there are eyes on me. They want me to forget everything and just go away.”

Ms Ibrahim, 25, is taking on, under her own name, a battle against the powerful ruling generals. She is the only named plaintiff in several legal cases against the officers who conducted “virginity tests” on 17 women protesters detained by the military last year.

Beyonce Baby Drama

I have a long-standing soft spot in my heart for Ms. Knowles, and although I’m not much of a celebrity gossip follower, I was very happy to hear about her giving birth to baby Ivy Blue, with husband Jay-Z. Jay even wrote a song about it — and while it’s admittedly not the hottest track, it is extremely sweet and no I did not tear up I JUST HAVE SOMETHING IN MY EYE.