And it’s that time of the week again. Here goes :
October is domestic violence month
You’re probably all inundated with Slutwalk-related articles after the NYC march this weekend, but still, you should read Sady Doyle’s piece about it.
Also on SlutWalk is Latoya Peterson’s piece on racism and solidarity over at Racialicious!
Another event that you’ve seen loads of coverage around this week is Occupy Wall Street.I haven’t been to the protests personally, but here are a few pieces I think you should check out:
Manissa Maharawal at Racialicious on the struggle to make OccupyWallSt a fairer, more inclusive space.
Jessica Yee on the colonialist implications of the movement. More on the topic through this Racialicious link round up.
The NYPD’s response to the protests has been messed up in a number of ways, detailed by Jill in an earlier post, but if you need further proof – this is appalling. A trans man protesting was arrested and mistreated in an incredibly transphobic manner.
Enough about Occupying Wall Street: the rest of your weekly dose of depressing is provided by the Hyde Amendment. The amendment prohibits all federal funding for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the woman. In celebration of its 35th anniversary, NPR tells us that ” even abortions that technically qualify for public funding often don’t reimbursed”. Yay.
Continuing on an anti-choice note, Saskatchewan Tory MP Brad Trost demands that the abortion debate be reopened. The Conservative position is apparently too far left for MP Trost, who thinks that a more aggressive pro-life campaign would result in a better, more moderate legislation in Canada. This occurs in the aftermath of a yearlong saga over Canada’s funding of Planned Parenthood International, recapped here.
Also. Still depressing but kind of awesome as well : the Berkeley College Republicans, in a classic College Republicans move, held a bakesale in which items were differently priced depending on your race. Affirmative action is evil message, protesting bill SB 185. But here’s where the awesome part comes in : the protests ! They ranged from serious vigils and demonstrations to counter bakesales, to this :
“UC Berkeley Professor of political science Wendy Brown tried to buy all the baked goods at the Republicans’ sale, but they did not allow her to do so.
“I thought the Republicans were free enterprise, but they won’t let me buy all the cupcakes,” she said.”
In other exciting news of the week, French feminist group Osez le feminisme has launched a new campaign : Madame ou Madame. The goal is to eradicate the official use of Mademoiselle (Miss) in paperwork, and generalize the use of Madame (Mrs) to all women regardless of marital status. Predictably, the argument that “it’s just semantics and doesn’t really matter” has been brought up a bunch…But still – check it out if you speak French, and if you do not and want more info, do let me know in the comments.
As usual, if there are links/stories/posts/etc you’d like to see included in these, please email feministe@gmail.com !