WOMEN & THE STIMULUS: How the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act addresses women’s needs (PDF).
TESTING THE PREMISE: Are gays a threat to children? An impressively in-depth look at homosexuality, child molestation, and how the actual facts fly in the face of right-wing anti-gay talking points.
BEYOND CHRIS AND RIHANNA: A youth perspective on domestic violence, and the social and media narratives that play out (or don’t) when women and genderqueer people of color are the survivors. Written by two members of Females United for Action, which is a part of Women & Girls Collective Action Network. (More about them here).
DREAMS DEFERRED: A new film looks at the murder of a 15-year-old lesbian of color, Sakia Gunn, who was stabbed to death after she and her friends refused the sexual advances of a man in downtown Newark. Her murder garnered almost no media attention. During the murder trial, the maker of this documentary was the only person with a camera in the entire court room.
WHAT IS THE “STATUS QUO”? A Washington Post columnist proclaims Obama’s appointments to be “Good news for the status quo” because the picks trend towards old white guys with elite educations from Eastern states. Notably, though, Obama has appointed more people of color and more women than Bush or Clinton (and, I assume, more than any other previous president). And I’m not sure I find it all that objectionable that he’s appointed a fair number of academics — it’s certainly better than the cronyism we saw in the last administration, where jobs were doled out to incompetent pals.
TEENS AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT: Teenagers routinely face sexual harassment at work. Maria Hinojosa covers it for PBS.
WHEN A PICTURE IS WORTH NO WORDS: The Wall Street Journal covers genetic counseling, a field dominated by women (96% of genetic counselors are female). They illustrate the story with a picture of a dude.
LOVELEEN WHO? Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle is getting all kinds of praise and accolades (not to mention Oscars). Turns out the film was co-directed. Loveleen Tand, the co-director, cast the film, translated the script into Hindi, filmed much of the Mumbai footage, and shaped the film to be culturally appropriate and accurate. In other words, she made the film what it is. I didn’t actually watch the Oscars, but word is that Boyle didn’t even bother to thank her. And in most of what I’ve read, he’s been getting most of the credit, while her contributions have been ignored. Think that would be the case if she weren’t a woman and of color? (Thanks to greeneyed fem for the link.)
MEETING SURVIVORS’ NEEDS: Marcella walks us through a multi-state study of domestic violence shelters, and points out that the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act, which was the primary federal funding source for domestic violence shelters, expired last fall. Head over to her place to learn about how you can flood the inboxes of everyone in DC to get this vital funding reinstated.
WHY I BECAME A FEMINIST: Because I’m past my prime of sexual excess. Aww.
WORDS MEAN THINGS: Do we really need to put the word “raped” in scare-quotes when a 13-year-old kills herself after being raped by a 39-year-old man? And considering that other under-age girls have come out and said that Paul Nicholls raped them, “pedophile” might also be an appropriate term to throw in the article. (Thanks to Cindy for the link).