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

Month: July 2013

Selfless Signal-Boosting Wednesday

This thread is for links to pieces on other people’s blogs that you have found delightful/memorable/provoking recently. Please save the self-promotion links for a Shameless Self-Promotion Sunday thread – use this thread to let Feministe readers know about the other blogs you love to read.

Guilty verdicts in Richmond High School rape case

[Trigger warning]: In 2009, a 16-year-old girl was beaten and raped for more than two hours on the Richmond High School campus in California. She nearly died after the attack, which was perpetrated by multiple men while even more looked on. After four years, some justice is being done: Two of the accused have been found guilty and are facing long sentences. I’m obviously not a big fan of long prison sentences as a general rule, but for sadists who rape and torture a young woman for group entertainment over the course of several hours? Yeah, those guys probably shouldn’t be walking the streets. Neither should the onlookers who encouraged the violence and did nothing to stop it.

RIP Helen Thomas

Pioneering journalist Helen Thomas passed away on Saturday at the age of 92. She asked tough questions and was one of the only women in her industry for much of her life. She was first at a lot of things: The first woman to be elected an officer of the White House Correspondents’ Association, the first woman to join the male journo Gridiron Club, the only female journalist to join Nixon on his trip to China in 1972. She was a badass (if one whose really poorly-chosen remarks about Israel and Palestine cast a shadow over her career). I met Helen twice at different journalist events, and have rarely been more star-struck. We need more journalists who are forthright and willing to ask difficult, straight-forward questions of those in power. May she rest well.

Is ABC so desperate for ratings that they need to bring an anti-vaxxer to the View?

I’m sure Jenny McCarthy is a perfectly nice person and I have perhaps laughed at one of her poop jokes once or twice, but she’s the biggest anti-vaccine celebrity out there, spreading all kinds of misinformation. And as far as I can tell, beyond her anti-vax activism, she’s never had even had a passing interest in current events or politics. So why put her on a show where her job is to intelligently discuss current events?