This week, I remark on the recent murder of a Bolivian woman living in Spain, and the particular vulnerability that migrant women face when they are victims of domestic and sexual violence abroad.
Laser tag and pole dancing as gendered behavior – One weekend, two very different experiences of gender expectations Doctors, Self Defense – I’m considering taking a self-defense class, and would love to hear experiences from other women Vibrators – Trans women like vibrators, too (Email me for the post password) Agency and Rewriting history – Continuing thoughts on how to move past regret
Here’s what’s been going on at Gender Across Borders this past week: Speaking of the Bechdel test: A Conversation with Alison Bechdel: GAB interviewed author of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For and graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic Amorous Old Men and Kenya’s Waning Reproductive Rights Are Children an Oppressed Class? Why Women Matter Also, International Women’s Day is a week from tomorrow (March 8)! GAB is hosting the inaugural Blog for International Women’s Day (IWD) event. To sign-up your blog, go to the Blog for IWD main website, http://genderacrossborders.com/blogforiwd/.
The Abuses of History – On anti-choicers’ co-option of the story of racism and eugenics in America. Ottawa Columnist Argues for Forced Sterilization – An op-ed in the Ottawa Sun suggests that women who deliver children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome should be forcibly sterilized; I attempt to express just how horrifying this is. And, on a lighter note, Breaking News: Canadians Enjoy Hockey, Beer – Because all this controversy surrounding the Canadian women’s hockey team is ridiculous, really.
The morality of fatness: a post about equating fat with being a bad person. How am I supposed to deal with extremely bigoted relatives? Olympic pseudo-scandals: a post about how Olympic athletes are forced to apologize for ridiculous things, especially if they’re women
I read the comments on Rachel Hills’ post, “But Women Don’t Rape,” after the thread had already been closed. I thought people on all sides of the issue raised some valid and thought-provoking points, but the discussion might have generated more light and less heat if it had drawn clearer distinctions among rape, other forms of sexual assault, and noncriminal but unethical behavior. So I posted some reflections at my own place on how not every instance of sexual assault equates to “rape,” and how the law alone cannot adequately transform sexual relations.
A Death Row inmate proves the judge who convicted him was boinking the prosecution lawyer. Might that be a conflict of interest? Not in Texas, it ain’t. Judge Verla Sue Holland says her reputation is being attacked, furthermore she’s ‘tired of laying over’ and ‘getting licked without any input’. I can see where that might get frustrating. It’s stranger than fiction. A man is in jail, two people murdered, and a ‘justice’ system so compromised the lawyers can’t even keep their excuses straight. Would you trust Verla Sue with the power of life and death? http://kmareka.com/2010/02/23/prejudicial/
I wrote a post about “Sisters of Life”, a group of Nuns who are coming to Canada to bring their anti-choice message. http://feministcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/02/sisters-of-life-lay-roots-in-toronto.html
This week, among other things, I wrote about a “boys” diary http://ms-marx.blogspot.com/2010/02/gendered-diaries.html
This week at Happy Bodies: Pick on Someone Your Own Size Nko explores the values and pressures we assign to bodies from a very young age. What we don’t talk about. Jill explores the ways women are asked not to sympathize with each other, and the need for women’s spaces. Beyond Vaginas! A publication detailing sexual violence prevention efforts on campus, beyond the Vagina Monologues performance.
http://feministswithfsd.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/lets-read-books-part-3-sex-is-not-a-natural-act-cont-2/ – Let’s read books part 3 – Sex is not a Natural Act, con’t – part 3 in our continuing series in which I read books about feminism + sexology and write ridiculously long posts about them.
Like many, I wrote on the Angie Jackson story, and fired off a quick rant on rape and sexual assault. Lots of talk (on this site, too!) lately on women as perpetrators of sexual assault, and it’s really getting under my skin.
Patriarchal Baddies and Smokey Goodness? Musings on the Monsters of Lost: Looking at the treatment of bodies of colors in the show “lost”. Abortion: The Choice We Do not Speak of: discussing the fact that even though abortion is legal, even activist attempt to separate themselves from it declaring that abortion is a choice that they would never make. PeTA Uses Tiger Woods to Advocate Spaying and Neutering: Ignoring the history of castration and Black men PeTA decides to use an authorized photo of Tiger Woods to advocate spaying and neutering of pets. White Girls Can Use Microscopes if they’re Pink: Looking at the pinkification of girls toys and the ways which children of color are often erased. George Lopez is helping to bring Speedy Gonzales to the Big Screen: Why reclamation is not always a positive thing.
In the spirit of Gloria Anzaldúa, Finding Gloria: Nos/otras is an independent zine featuring the words and art of various contributors. Anzaldúa was a writer, poet, and artist whose work focused mostly on her identities as a woman, Chicana, lesbian, and feminist. The title of the zine comes from Anzaldúa’s work. Some of the contributors work directly in projects honoring her, and many of the pieces cite Anzaldúa or use her style of writing. Gilbert’s engaging prose and witty, self-deprecating style are intriguing, thought provoking, moving, and hilarious. Committed picks up where Eat, Pray, Love leaves off. Gilbert and Felipe have been living together happily on several continents, but their domestic bliss is brought to an end when U.S. Immigration detain Felipe at the airport in Dallas and then deport him. The couple is advised that the only way Felipe will be able to enter and live in the U.S. again is if they get married. I didn’t intended to write a review of The Blind Side, but when my aunt responded to my Facebook status deriding the film’s racist indoctrination by saying my critiques were a figment of my liberal imagination, it all came flowing out. The Blind Side is a version of (Black) NFL player Michael Oher’s true life story of being taken in by a (White) Christian family in Memphis, TN during his final years of high school after ending up homeless. (How he ends up that way is never explained in the film.) The family cares for him and helps him graduate from high school, go to college on an athletic scholarship, and eventually play professional football. Meant to be a feel-good film, Oher’s story actually isn’t told from the vantage point of Oher himself, but from the perspective of his surrogate mother. And this is where the misstepping begins. Feminist Review is the most popular blog whose sole purpose is to analyze various products from feminist perspectives. We’ve been going strong for more than three years, and now we need your help to keep bringing you our unique and innovative content.
Now I Will Swoon: French-American couple Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp make their on-screen debut as French-American lovers Simone de Beauvoir and Nelson Algren in My American Lover. How do you say “awesome” in French? The Goode Family makes for good TV: The entire premise—if you have enough progressive political awareness to get the jokes and can laugh at yourself—is riotously funny. GaGa for Condoms: ‘It’s not complicated, just a fashion statement,’ said pop star Lady GaGa of the range of condoms she’s designed with Jeremy Scott for the contraception brand Proper Attire. Furious French Feminists Say Debt Campaign is Très Cliché: In a new campaign advertising a €35 billion loan the French government is taking out, the nationalistically symbolic Marianne is depicted as barefoot and pregnant. Who thought that was a good idea?
Here are my posts! “If you can’t beat ’em, Sweetums!”, about my favorite Thursday night TV show. “Pink Elephants”, an new excerpt from the sequel to Steve the Penguin. Enjoy!
I have a post detailing how math is oppressing me, specifically Lie group algebra and homomorphic reduction used in social science research. It’s not as boring as it sounds. There’s pictures!
This week in Evil Slutopia: We decided that figure skater Johnny Weir was the best and most interesting thing about these Olympics, so we declared him an honorary member of the Evil Slut Clique and decided that we’re just going to write about him every day now.
A comparison of the different kinds of feminism in the Purim story by Dina, and a Eve Ensler and her latest project to normalize and respect women’s voices and emotions.
This week at re:Cycling, we’ve got a visit from the Period Fairy; Chella Quint’s commemoration of Fashion Week with menstrual couture; recommended reading from ladyblogs; feminine protection for the iPad; new research on periods and pain sensitivity; video clips from “That Not So Fresh Feeling: Marketing Embarrassing Products To Women” panel at HousingWorks in New York; and book review by David Linton of The Bleeding of America.
A conversation with a Muslim got me thinking about arranged marriages. Turns out, I’m in favor. I wonder how much my dowry is? http://primrosepathtoys.blogspot.com/2010/02/on-contemplating-arranged-marriage.html?zx=aa0e84980a32ee9a
This week I wrote a CD review, an album with a strong theme of economic and ecological sustainability: If you haven’t heard (of) Talis Kimberley yet, you’re missing out! I also made brief mention of the hoop-la over the Canadian women celebrating victory in the ice hockey. I’m also going to do a repeat promote of the sex education petition I created – in the hope that there’s plenty of British readers here who missed it last week. (susequent comments elsewhere revealed there is also a current Government consultation on sex ed, British readers would be well advised to add their comments to that as well).
Long time lurker, first time poster… Last week I gave a lecture on sex to a college Intro Psych course, . I also revisited and compared the theme of in those 90s beauties, 10 Things I Hate About You and She’s All That. Also, collecting celebrity quotes on body image and body acceptance.
an update on the ucsd racial tension: noose found, student admits to hanging it, more protests, the letter froma ucsd professor encouraging everyone to show their solidarity and how those who are no black should continue to protest and fight along with our fellow brothers and sisters. Real Pain. Real Action (Solidarity) http://thatneedstogo.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/noose-found-at-ucsd-real-pain-real-action-in-solidarity-with-ucsd-protesters/
This week at Spilt Milk I wrote about how size acceptance has informed my parenting in Let Us Eat Cake. I also seemed to hit a nerve with my post Shouting Out Loud, about the sexualisation of young girls in media and advertising. And I wrote a letter to my women-only gym expressing my feminist outrage at their latest marketing campaign.
Why We Shouldn’t Focus So Much on John Mayer and What We Should be Focusing on Again, J Smooth, the video blogger at nil doctrine says it best http://thatneedstogo.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/why-we-shouldnt-focus-so-much-on-john-mayer-and-what-we-should-be-focusing-on/
Feminism objectifies women. The way we conceive of our activism can have oppressive effects, and it behooves us to consider carefully when we are making pronouncements about what is nonconformity and what is appeasement/capitulation.
On feminism and capitalism: A more complex view of capitalism and rejection of the dualistic capitalist/communist binary is needed if we wish to challenge oppressive hierachies.
The problem with Lori Gottlieb’s much maligned Marry Him is that Gottlieb doesn’t differentiate between neurotic, Seinfeld-esque behaviour and holding out for someone who – shock horror – you might actually love. In Marry Him, not ruling out a man because he’s 175 centimetres instead of 185 centimetres quickly snowballs into dating men you‘re not attracted to. Not freaking out because he loves sport and you love reading translates to Gottlieb dating a man with whom she shares neither common interests nor chemistry… When I was at university, my friends and I wrote a song about herpes… A ladymag article I wrote on STI stigma and perceived invincibility, which I’m pretty sure some Feministe readers helped out with. US hegemony and the feminist blogosphere: on not being in America, notes from beyond the centre of the universe.
My review of this week’s episode of Lost. What do Russian Ice Dancers and Australian Aboriginals Have in Common?: examining the “aboriginal dance” of the Russian ice dancing team that stirred up some controversy at the Olympics. Check out the latest That’s Gay which looks at the ice skater Johnny Weir. I love Johnny Weir.
I wrote a post on Teaching Bigotry that seems to have gotten a fairly positive response–I discuss the fact that teachers have an obligation to their marginalized students, using the example of my Sociology prof (who gets it wrong).
Happy Sunday! In honor of Women’s History Month, I’ll write about one woman each day. (SPOILER: I finished the series last month.) As a preview, I provided 100 Awesome women. I did this last year after some media outlet made a list of less than satisfactory candidates. Another 100 Women Tuesday marked week EIGHT of Copy Edit Craigslist Tuesday! And finally, MIT published an informal study last fall regarding its students’ sex lives. I was rather…disturbed by the findings. As a warning, I show that I am (sometimes) an immature jerk. Have a great week, everyone!
This week at Femonomics: I review Gail Evans’ Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman Coca Colo discusses a group that is racializing the abortion debate in Georgia and has a piece about the Canadian womens’ hockey team’s celebration We also have pieces on teacher compensation, Apple banning sexxy apps, criminalizing miscarriage, and Obama’s recent moves on healthcare.
<a href="http://yesmeansyesblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/sadly-this-deficiency-is-the-norm/"Sadly, This Deficiency Is The Norm. There is a lot of information left out of most sex ed for teens, but the biggest omission is structural. Discrete informationaimed at preventing pregnancy and infection is not the only thing teens need. They need holistic education to guide them from childhood to sexual adulthood. Acceptence Via Normalization, Understanding Via Pathologizing. The title is taken from an academic article on representations of BDSM in mainstream media. The problem with those representations is that they operate in ways that reaffirm the dominant paradigm. This has been true throughout the history of sexual minorities. Divorce Rate Horseshit. A pop-culture fake statistic about divorce that’s, as some geeks say, “so bad it isn’t even wrong.” Lots of links to statistics. Call For Production. I had the same thought Dan Savage did about Miss Beverly Hills’ claim that she has gay friends, even though she believes that Leviticus says they deserve divine punishment: leave aside that “some of my friends are …” is not a defense; it’s probably not even true. She says that, but I don’t think she can actually produce an out gay person who will be seen with her in public.
Here are mine: http://missincognegro.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/on-principle-aka-voting-ones-conscience/ http://missincognegro.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/feeding-the-privileged-for-feeding-those-in-need/ http://missincognegro.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/it-all-begins-at-home/ Enjoy!
In response to the silly, overblown, unnecessary controversy over the Canadian Women’s Ice Hockey team celebration, I discuss other examples of sexism in ice hockey.
I tried responding to dialogues, here and elsewhere, about ,a href=”http://modusdopens.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/consent-negotiations/”>consent negotiations, saying a bit more on what we mean by gendered violence, and rape culture. –IP
This week I responded to Jessica Simmons’s feminist critique of the hook up culture, arguing that we do women a disservice when we buy into anti-feminist histories of dating and courtship. The powerlessness that her readers feel are a continuation of sexist structures that dictate our romantic relationships, not the result of feminism or the sexual revolution. http://austintotamu.blogspot.com/2010/02/problem-with-hook-up-culture-is-that.html
This week, on Gender Across Borders, I published an interview with author/artist of Dykes to Watch Out For and Fun Home Alison Bechdel: http://genderacrossborders.com/2010/02/23/a-conversation-with-alison-bechdel/
In a positive piece of news, some local media does take issues of VAW seriously– The Hartford Courant has a year-long focus on domestic violence, and in honor of February as Teen Dating Violence Awareness & Prevention month, I spoke on a panel with William Pollack (Real Boys author) about my own experiences with TDV as a teen and the work I do to prevent TDV in Bridgeport, CT as part of a national campaign. Added bonus: I got an op-ed printed in the paper! Link to article below http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/hc-commentarywood0207.artfeb07,0,3313876.story
In response to some of the things that were said in wonderful “But Women Don’t Rape” comment thread on this very blog! Regret: please enjoy responsibly
Call for contributors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Feminuity is a feminist blog that is inspired by the many forms of feminist ingenuity that surround us. Feminuity is a forum for feminist, political, queer, transgender and countless of other advocates and activists to come together in creative, productive and alternative ways. While Sarah Jane writes for Feminuity daily, the main point of this blog is to create a community and dialogue, and therefore any and all submissions are gratefully accepted on an ongoing basis. There is no limit on the number of submissions per person. So please feel free to make your voice/opinion/wonderings and strange thoughts heard. All initial submissions to be sent to: sarah.jane@feminuity.com and from there a user name and log in can be created for folks who’d like to contribute semi-regularly.
I posted a call for posts for the first Blog Carnival on Privilege. I’d love it if some of the Feministe bloggers and readers wanted to contribute posts!
This week f/law offers a double dose of suggested reading: first, our contributor examines Beijing +15 and Canadian Leadership http://canadianwomenandthelaw.blogspot.com/2010/02/beijing-15-canadian-leadership.html and then we have an open discussion thread about women in the Olympics. http://canadianwomenandthelaw.blogspot.com/2010/02/discussion-question-women-and-olympics.html
I haven’t read the Sunday sharing posts long enough to know what’s okay to share here… Hoping this is alright? I’m a feminist and a sexual submissive and I’ve just started blogging about it. In this post, “and fuck you, too (or, mass media and women’s body image)” http://www.tsaphanbabe.net/2010/02/and-fuck-you-too-or-mass-media-and.html which is really, really, really long I let out my anger (with a lot of cursing) about mass media’s portrayal of women. I’ve already gotten guff about it because someone read it as “anti-porn,” which I believe it’s not. I don’t happen to enjoy porn, but, I’m not against it. Anyway, again, I hope this subject is okay for this blog! I love, love, love the blog but have never shared a link before.
First time sharing with a link to my just-about-brand-new blog. I had a revelation about bodily autonomy and wrote about it: http://thessamercury.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/this-body-is-mine/
A discussion about whether Medea of the ancient Greek myths was criminally liable for killing the woman her husband married after casting her aside and for killing her children with him.
The Destructive Pursuit of Ageless Beauty: Examining body-image, feminism, our fear of aging, and the beauty industry. http://thevoraciousvegan.com/2010/02/28/the-destructive-pursuit-of-ageless-beauty/
Hmm. Is it too late if it’s Monday now? USA Today fail: On an atrocious article “inspired” by the earthquake in Chile. Among other things, the authors’ account of history erases the existence of indigenous peoples in North America, and they position the United States as the center of the universe.
Rep. Rice has a brand new proposal out and it’s aim is pretty simple. http://www.bit.ly/a9VRZr Also, I blogged about Tony Kornheiser’s rude (and sexist) remarks about the attire Hannah Storm (real name Hannah Storen) wore presumably on the Feb. 12 edition of Sportscenter. http://aikenareaprogressive.blogspot.com/2010/02/tony-kornheiser-makes-sexist-remarks.html