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

Month: September 2013

Reluctantly wading into the HSewer again: for the record

I’d rather be worming a skunk than writing this post, but just because the femmosphere collectively has HS-fatigue would be no excuse for not calling for the same thing we’d be calling for if it was any other professorinstructor at any other teaching institution who had disclosed this about his own actions.

What’s this latest disclosure, you may ask? It’s that despite claims of current monogamy, Hugo Schwyzer Was Sleeping With His Students All Along: he should resign from PCC immediately. If he refuses to resign, he should be fired.

Weekly Open Thread with a misty mountain

This week’s Open Thread host is this wonderful picture of Mount Pico in the Azores archipelago, which is the land mass closest to the antipodal point of Sydney, Australia. Because it’s on the opposite side of the planet,I am using it to distract myself from my sense of impending doom over this Saturday’s Australian Federal Election. Please natter/chatter/vent/rant on anything* you like over this weekend and throughout the week.
* with a few netiquette exceptions

The Feminist Anti-Contraception Crusaders

The right-wing anti-sex “real woman” backlash seems to have hit the feminist movement this month, with the publication of books telling women to swear off the Pill and to swear off sex. I’m writing about it in the Guardian: That we’ve come a long way, baby, but gender relations remain fraught, and living with a wide variety of choices that look wide-open but end up constrained is much more challenging than having one or two paths to choose from. It’s easier, in many ways, to offer simple proscriptive advice about “real” femininity than to have to figure out how to be a woman when the definition of “womanhood” is increasingly broad:

Anti-abortion terrorists descend on New Mexico

At some point, when your organization is picketing Holocaust museums and when your organization is run by a felon who conspired to bomb medical facilities and when the last doctor your organization targeted ended up murdered by a person who shares your political views (and a few before him were killed or shot at), don’t you pause for a second and think, “Hmmm. Maybe we don’t have the moral high ground here?”

Not if you’re an active member of the pro-life movement.

Sex + Cookies 2.0 | Episode #1: “Nice Guys”

Welcome to Sex + Cookies, an advice column where we answer questions on sexual health and relationships, whilst looking at dessert porn and mocking Republican rape philosophers (sometimes). Actually, let’s just dive into our first episode…

Selfless Signal-Boosting Wednesday

This thread is for links to pieces on other people’s blogs that you have found delightful/memorable/provoking recently (they can be older posts, just something you’ve found recently relevant). 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, especially those on the margins of the mainstream social justice communities, who tend to not get as much exposure as they should.

Rape Culture in Action Round-Up

A few links from the last few months: I’m sure most readers have seen more examples published recently, or know of examples personally. Please do add your links and, if you want/can, share your stories in the comments, because continuing documentation of these toxic social phenomena is crucial in persuading people that a problem actually exists, which is the first step in building momentum for reform.

NB: do not ignore the Moderator Note at the foot of this post when drafting your comment(s).

What’s killing poor white women in the South?

Feministe friend and former guest blogger Monica Potts takes a look at the decrease in life expectancy for low-income whites in the Southern United States. She doesn’t come away with any definitive answers, but paints a picture of desolation, few opportunities and lack of access to decent health care and good food as potential culprits. It is a heart-breaking must-read.