For Never Was A Story Of More Woe, an attempt to analyze self-proclaimed anti-racists and anti-sexists/Nice Guys (TM), whose false consciousness does not allow to be criticized for racist and sexist behaviour and who then have to resort to claims of “reverse racism/sexism” (and why that pisses me off); All Just A Little Bit Of History Repeating, a short post about “Adriano”, a protest song written and performed by Afro-German artists in 2001 after yet another murder of a Black German person, Alberto Adriano, and my frustration about the fact that nothing seems to have changed this past decade when it comes to white German racism.
At the Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona blog, we finished up Cervical Health Awareness Month with two posts about the HPV vaccine: HPV Vaccines: Separating Fiction from Fact: a myth-busting post about the controversial HPV vaccine Book Club: The HPV Vaccine Controversy: A review of a book that is not only about the HPV vaccine, but includes incredibly helpful information for anyone with a cervix, anyone who has had an abnormal Pap smear, and anyone who would like to know more about the lifecycle and transmission of the virus.
A disgustingly sexist campaign that made my blood boil: http://clarissasblog.com/2012/01/28/a-disgustingly-sexist-campaign-boys-suck-girls-rock/ Do you find it hard to say “no” to pushy people? http://clarissasblog.com/2012/01/25/do-you-have-trouble-saying-no-to-pushy-people/ Mental health and grad school: a sad story of a grad student at Yale http://clarissasblog.com/2012/01/27/mental-health-and-grad-school/ It annoys be beyond belief when people speak of “abortion-promoting Liberals”: http://clarissasblog.com/2012/01/24/abortion-promoting-liberals/
This week, I urged a group of high school girls to go without makeup for a day. The response was very cool. I also wrote about the importance of female friendships. Finally, I mused about going TV-free, and realized I don’t think I could do it.
New post, “The State of My Union is the State of My Uterus,” by Guerilla Girls On Tour! Plus, new audio from my interview with a Seattle abortion doctor, at theproviderproject.org.
Here in the eighth month of my second pregnancy, I give a brief (and wholly made-up) history of pregnancy, and how it was invented by men during the Victorian age to oppress women. http://greyskiesnyc.blogspot.com/2012/01/brief-history-of-pregnancy.html -Meredith L.
I’m coming to Austin, Texas next weekend (Feb. 4 and Feb. 5) to do two book talk / reading / signing events for Markets Not Capitalism, my new book on mutualist anarchism and grassroots anticapitalism. Heavens.
I revamped the look of ArmedVenus and posted only a two times this week. Hope you enjoy them! DandyKor: Albuqueerque’s Queerest Performers . This is a short review of the show from last week. Hopefully I will be in the next one in March! Capitol Offense explores some of the issues I am having with the Hunger Games adverts. I find them revolting and antithetical to the books message.
This week I wrote about Cynthia Nixon’s “gay as choice” comments, using online pseudonyms, and popular music and authenticity.
Just started http://www.techtropes.com – technology resources for writers Sample content – Building a better alien invasion – (http://www.techtropes.com/writing-resources/common-tropes-building-alien-invasion)
Myself and other disabled activists, supported by the anti-cuts group UK Uncut chained ourselves in wheelchairs across the Oxford Circus in Central London. We were protesting against some very harsh welfare reforms our government is pushing through which penalise disabled people especially. I blogged about it and my reasons for taking part and I’ve included pictures and links.
As a follow-up to my post last week on the Playboy centerfold image processing example, I took a somewhat broader look at image processing example images and still found them to be problematic. Lena: a follow-up
Kay Hymowitz thinks it’s a good idea to shame people for liking Star Wars and being unemployed. http://noseriouslywhatabouttehmenz.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/kay-hymowitz-terrible-person-or-worst-person/ Why the fuck do men send those spam messages on dating sites? http://noseriouslywhatabouttehmenz.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/spam-messages-on-dating-sites/ It’s a common MRA talking point, but are men actually more likely to be homeless than women? http://noseriouslywhatabouttehmenz.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/are-men-more-likely-to-be-homeless/
Punk Rock Girls vs. Manic Pixie Dream Girls – In which my nostalgia biases me into arguing that they aren’t the same. Something Oddly Familiar: What to Expect When You’re Expecting Movie Promo– The series of posters released to promote this movie are a little too familiar, and way too cliche. Home Birth vs. Hospital Birth: Who Gets Lost in Dichotomizing Rhetoric?– Home births are up 30% but primarily in a very narrow socioeconomic group of mothers. How does the way we frame the discussion impact those without the same societal privileges? I Finally Watched The Help– I was afraid to watch the film after reading so many critiques of its treatment of race, but when it got four Oscar noms, I decided I needed to judge for myself. I was surprised by my reaction.
Dorrie Olds courageously writes about surviving gang rape– and sees the ‘friend’ who raped her on Facebook, Margaret Atwood writes a revenge story, as long as rape culture lives, the past is not past. http://kmareka.com/2012/01/22/violationbetrayal/
I put together a litany of saints for church musicians, and blogged about a couple of documents that I recently discovered that have come out of dialogues between North American theologians in the Orthodox and Catholic churches: – one discusses the primary theological point that has traditionally divided the two churches, on the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the other two Persons of the Trinity – the other explores what a reunified church might look like, including some exploration of the question What would the Pope do in a reunited church?
This week I dredged up an old ‘project’ – a round-up of female protagonists of colour on television. It’s partly for my own interest and partly to make a point – TV has a long, long way to go yet to ensuring diverse representation, particularly in terms of true leading roles. Contributions are very much welcomed!
About threats of violence against politicians, most of them women. If I were an American in Missouri. Inspired by a local news story. When is burlesque empowering, and what isn’t? Empowerment sale – get yours today! What doesn’t kill you leaves you broken, actually. ** Triggers for sexual and other assault** Redux: Pondering Roe v. Wade and its Canadian equivalent. What if my mother had aborted me? ** triggers for abuse and self-harm ** More on being nice, working for nothing and not asking for much. Margaret Atwood turns Greek myth on its head, fun had by all: Meditations on The Penelopiad and its take on women vs other women.
“Before you judge, stop and feel the hate. It flows from both directions.” A chilling abortion clinic excorting experience puts Compassion In Perspective.
8 tips for sharing accurate information (important to do as activists): http://humaneconnectionblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/8-tips-for-sharing-accurate-information.html The power of humane education; it’s easy to spark enthusiasm, but challenging to sustain & nurture commitment: http://humaneconnectionblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/power-of-humane-education.html
What do we ask of actors? What about in porn? – Why do we care if porn stars are ‘really’ enjoying what they’re doing when we don’t ask the same of non-porn actors? Cocks of Love – Swapping body parts for the Trans Community – If only.
This week, I wonder if porn could be used as a vehicle for feminism, and write about a woman who tried to do just that.
A piece in which I interview genderqueer porn star Jiz Lee about their thoughts on issues of consent in porn. Continuing that theme, I’d highly recommend everyone read Tracy Clark-Flory’s article about Maggie Mayhem and Kitty Stryker, two adult performers and activists who are talking about abuse in the BDSM community and building “consent culture.”
A piece about rape “jokes”, and why some guys think they’re an acceptable form of male bonding: Rohypnol: Get a Better Punchline, or “Get Your Banter Outta My Beer!”
In Pelvic Floor: Flying, I looked at crow pose as a way to work on lifting pelvic floor muscles (with modifications and video). I finished Unwisely, my story with relationship abuse, and asked whether anyone would be interested in reading more creative content like that. And still thinking about the NYT article “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,” I thought about the word “wrecked” as a general term for bodies that are injured or disabled.
Hollow Characters of Colour on Lost Girl : Examining how having characters of colour in powerful positions can sometimes mean not investing them with a back story relative to White characters and how this works as a form of faux inclusion. Dear Ian Somerhalder Missing Black People Are More Important Than Cats : Known animal activist calls for the police to investigate the murder of a cat, ignoring that there are several hundred if not thousands of missing and murdered people of colour who the police are doing nothing to investigate. Cover Snark: Give me down to there, hair, shoulder length or longer : Looking at the tendency to use long hair to cover the face of female protagonists and what this means in terms of race and gender. Review of Underworld Awakening: A critical look at the latest movie in the Underworld saga.
Some blog posts I did on: SWTOR and the lack of female flirt options for my Sith Inquisitor Disability in the Media Faking Lesbianism in Pop Culture Comments are always welcome 🙂
The Daily Mail doesn’t know where the cervix is – or believe in the clitoris! Strangely I’m not surprised. I also weighed in on the Anti-Using-Aborted-Foetuses-in-Food Bill fiasco.
This week at Junkland, I: Debunked 8 myths about “welfare queens.” Learned some things at Reddit/r/feminisms.
Last week, I wrote about the first of the four “Women matter” report, which identifies a correlation between gender diversity in leadership teams and all kinds of other success factors. This week, I wrote about “Women matter 2” which offers a plausible story about causality. How is it the having more women in the leadership team actually causes better performance? And I wrote about “Women matter 3” which identifies best practices in terms of what companies that prioritize gender balance are actually doing to try to achieve it.
Sexuality, queerness, and children’s knowledge about themselves: ‘I’ve been having a think about adult habits of disappearing childhood sexuality, and what this means for queer sexualities.’ Emotional performance: on the kinds of emotion women are expected to perform, or keep in. My favourite place in Australia: on finding a place to feel safe, or not.
Yet another post about music — specifically about feeling like I have permission to break out — as Lisa’s Hotcakes (we have a name now) continues to grow.
At the Jewish Currents blog, I wrote Stealing Jewish Women, about the Israeli anti-miscegenation movement and how it equates Jewish women with possessions and objects by claiming that Palestinian men are out to “steal” them.
Hey, it’s winter, PBS is dribbling out “Downton Abbey” to us every week — and I got in the mood to make up a list of Top 25 Best Period Dramas. And what I found is that it includes things like “The Godfather” as well as “Little Dorrit” and “The Forsyte Saga.” Please read and tell me what I’ve forgotten. Listmania: The very best of period drama. (It’s not just for girls.)
This week I wrote a few paragraphs about science, gender and certainty, and a bunch more about Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea novels. (Mostly I was stoked about how Tehanu, the fourth one, is like, full-on crone love.)
Posts on Glee: http://katreadsbooks.blogspot.com/2012/01/glee-kind-to-trans-community.html (Glee’s transphobia) http://katreadsbooks.blogspot.com/2012/01/no-kurt.html (On “Never Been Kissed”) http://katreadsbooks.blogspot.com/2012/01/more-glee.html (On Glee’s religion episode) In which I literally had a feminist nightmare: http://katreadsbooks.blogspot.com/2012/01/feminism-has-invaded-my-dreams.html In which I recount both discussing The Elder Scrolls games and abortion with an anti-choicer. http://katreadsbooks.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-tumblr.html And being an asexual who broke up with her sexual girlfriend: http://katreadsbooks.blogspot.com/2012/01/i-broke-up-with-my-sexual-girlfriend.html
My Occupy group had a Teach-In about health care around the world, in comparison to the USA: http://daisysdeadair.blogspot.com/2012/01/its-enough-to-make-you-sick.html If you have any experience with health care systems outside of the USA, we’d love to hear about it. (This is part of our ongoing Teach-in series here in Occupy Greenville.) And of course, if you’d like to vent about the lousy system here in the US, feel free! Many thanks to Shakesville for their helpful readers, when I posted this on Friday… great comments!
Professors I would love to have. As always, critical thinking is the best. I should really just save this letter for my classes. Energy breakdown: from oil to the moon Body image comparisons that should go away: skinny vs. curvy. Did you see that meme that went around with the ‘when did this become hotter than this?’ I saw it pop up five times on my fb feed in two days, and here is why it’s ridiculous. Finally, your piece in history belongs to someone else.
I’ve got a recipe posted for Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies. “Makes that Little Debbie look like a pile a puke.”
Another post on not using the t word: http://transplantportation.com/2012/01/23/the-violence-of-the-t-word/ And on the main page, applying etiquette learned in transition is applicable to everyone! http://transplantportation.com
The next part of my series on identity-construction and gender: Identities: Sex and Gender II — On Being Male, and Being Not
I’m not really planning a series on misconceptions about feminism, but this post is the first of maybe two: Misconception: Protesting sexism is divisive. I just get so tired of men accusing women of “being divisive” when they speak up for themselves, and they pull out that phrase so often.
A Fox News “health” post about feminist “demands” that women who identify as feminists actually want men to ignore! http://larkincallaghan.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/fox-news-you-never-stop-learning-me/
Oooh, great links so far! I’ll add mine to the bunch: I wrote briefly about the Australia Day protests that happened in Canberra. Trailer for a kids movie that looks promising and fun until the producers decide that what they need to just make it that whole bit funnier is to “put a sexist joke on the end!” And my anger at an Australian ad for the reality TV show “The Biggest Loser’ and the message it gives about loving yourself. Also, Mary at Hoyden About Town has hosted the 44th edition of the Down Under Feminists Carnival, which has some great links and topics written in December. Check then out!
Something of a BDSM theme to my blogging this week. I pondered what a gender-flipped version of “forced feminisation” humiliation might look like, with a female “bottom” humiliated by being made more masculine – comments became an interesting discussion of the intersection between classism and sexism in these kinds of play. I responded to the Salon article on abuse within the BDSM community. That one has a trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault, and rape apologism. At my NSFW BDSM sex blog, I talked about a couple of fetishes, but both posts involved a certain amount of analysis influenced by my feminist leanings: first, the symbolism of sexual wrestling porn (trigger warning for discussion of violence in a sexual context), and then “objectification play” versus objectification (again, trigger warning for discussion of sexual objectification and vulnerability).
2011 was a very bad year. On abortion, birth control, and personhood amendments. Class warfare and envy. In which I am not rich because I clearly don’t work hard enough. And my ninth novel came out this week. Power in the Blood is a family tragedy set during a vampire apocalypse in Memphis.
I need money. Please forward all checks to: Ben Weaver 3501 Speedway Apt. 101 Austin, TX 78705 Have a nice day.
I wrote about the recent report of the UNAIDS Advisory Group on HIV and Sex Work, which strongly rejects the Swedish model of criminalising sex workers’ clients.
a friend and I have a lighthearted discussion about the feminist credentials of Destiny’s Child’s ‘Independent Women Part I’. http://canbebitter.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/bitter-debate-1-that-independent-women-part-i-by-destinys-child-is-actually-bad-for-women/
I wrote about how you can be vegan and pro-abortion without ever contradicting yourself, and, relatedly, why Santorum’s ‘all life is sacred’ stance is both contradictory and unhelpful.
Saturday, I wanted to climb through the TV and throttle the Today Show producers for their segment “Stunning, Sexy, and Sixty” – but I couldn’t, so I wrote something I would pay to have one of them read: “Today Show: Aging is BAD (for Women).” Also, as a quite experienced woman of divorce, I was allowed to guest post on the relationship blog Geek and Jock with “Divorce: When Is It Time?” (subheadings and photo captions added by host)
Today is the LAST DAY to contribute to the Frances Hugle project. If this project is not funded, Cheryl Hugle will be unable to preserve her mother’s scientific papers, and her work will be lost, as has happened to so many deserving female scientists over the years. Please don’t let this happen. If you can’t give something (even a dollar helps!), at least link to the project. Here is the link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/puredogma/the-inventions-of-frances-hugle?ref=live
I wrote twice. The first is my response to requests for donations from the DCCC. I’ve always loved the ‘I Write Letters’ format. Now I’ve got my own. The second is another musing on my issues and history with depression.