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

Month: April 2013

Welcome to a pro-life world

In El Salvador, a young mother pseudonymously called Beatriz is pregnant and dying. She has lupus and is facing renal failure; the fetus she’s pregnant with is anencephalic, meaning it has no brain and will not survive once born. If she dies, she will leave behind a husband and their toddler. With each passing day, she gets sicker and sicker, and the chances of death increase. She needed a termination weeks ago; more delays could pose significant hardships, as the probability increases that she will have to be on dialysis for the rest of her life — not a reasonable possibility for a poor woman living in rural El Salvador. But because El Salvador outlaws abortion under any circumstance, Beatriz cannot terminate the pregnancy that’s killing her.

The University of Arizona needs a new student code of conduct

Content note: Rape threats.

Dean Saxton, a student at the University of Arizona, is hanging out on campus with a “You Deserve Rape” sign. Because you’re dressed like a whore, of course, so you’re asking for it. The University says there’s nothing they can do, because he hasn’t violated the student code of conduct. I would suggest that maybe it’s time to rewrite the student code of conduct?

Haiti Check-In

It’s not a surprise that the internet situation here is less than perfect, and I’ve had days so packed that by the time I get back to the hotel I just want to pass out, but a few quick observations before I have to run off to another meeting:

Destination: Haiti

Tomorrow I’ll be flying down to Port-au-Prince with some folks from JCI to check out the construction of a new community center. It’ll be a quick trip — just four days — but I’ll be writing about it here. A description of the project is at the link. Any questions you have? Particulars you’d like to see covered?

Favorite Feminist of the Day: TigTog

Just wanted to take a moment to send some love to our tech / moderation / does-everything goddess TigTog. She keeps this place running smoothly, she’s exceptionally generous with her time and ideas, and she’s come up with and instituted many of the new comment features that are leading to more productive discussions and better moderation — calling for a giraffe, threaded comments, open threads. She is, in a word, wonderful. And she works extremely hard without the credit she deserves. So take a moment and leave a comment for TigTog — or a cat photo, or your favorite GIF, or whatever you think she would like. Because TigTog is the best and we love her.

On being one of those girls

Something about this piece at Delusions of Equality really resonated with me — and I’m not sure why, because it doesn’t describe my experience in the slightest. While I couldn’t pull off girly-girl convincingly or hide my good grades, my desperate efforts were definitely in the direction of conforming. I hung out with guys in carefully unoffensive yet girly casual outfits and talked about having more guy friends than girlfriends because girls were too dramatic and emotional. Without undue pressure I would acknowledge that I believed all the things feminists believe but I just wasn’t a feminist because, y’know, I wasn’t one of them.

Anyway, so what I’m saying is… sorry for college, I guess.