American Horror Story and Gratuitous Rape: Looking at the treatment of rape in the two seasons of American Horror Story. Review: The Awakening by L.J. Smith. Book 1 of the Vampire Diaries: We’ve read it so now you don’t have to and this review explains in part why the show The Vampire Diaries is as problematic as it is. Merlin Season 5 Review: With Merlin now over, we have a look back at the series. Finally, a recap and review of Supernatural: Season 8, Episode 10: Torn and Frayed
A Slate article on how older parents are “creepy” and therefore wrong annoyed me somewhat. MY MUM IS NOT CREEPY SO THERE. In other Stuff Which Annoys Me news, why are we framing the Suzanne Moore “Brazillian transexuals” kerfuffle about Moore’s feelings, rather than her transphobia?
Did the ‘Scandal’ Torture Scene, Disrespect Sandy Hook Victims?: The Parents Television Council has charged the popular show Scandal of being overly violent and yet all it depicted was interrogation tactics used by the C.I.A and approved by the American government at one time. It’s interesting they chose the show with the Black female lead and ignored others that were equally as violent in the same week. Did We Have a Pro Woman Golden Globes?: Examining the claim that the recent award show was a positive reflection of how far women have come in Hollywood. According to Ann Coulter People of Color Are Responsible for Gun Violence: Examining Coulter’s claim the the gun violence in the U.S. is the fault of people of colour and why she won’t talk about White hypermasculinity. Things Asians Hate : Looking at a list of racist stereotypes aimed at Asian people.
‘Career Boys’ – the next on my series on Dorothy L Sayers’ feminism, in which she asks men to imagine what life would be like in a society which treated them like women (including hilarious imagined 1930s magazine interviews) http://quiteirregular.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/career-boys/
I shared a recipe for gouda mac and cheese and also discussed some of the food anxieties that such a recipe comes with for me. Toilet Paper & Pathos — What happens when I try to teach rhetorical appeals to 9th graders. Ditching the Resolutions — Apparently there’s an “official” day to ditch one’s New Year’s resolution. And that day is January 17.
Ack! And one more on attending yoga class to find it filled with tips and reminders for how to whittle your waist.
This one’s from a few weeks ago, but I didn’t Shamelessly Self-Promote it at the time so you’re all getting it now. The Friend Zone: a comic Back to this week: When I Can’t Argue Inequality: Homophobia and Vulnerability. Most of the time I can give as good as I get when confronting bigotry. But sometimes.. sometimes it’s just too damn close to my heart. You’d think that a post like the one above about feeling unable to deal with homophobia wouldn’t have led to responses from homophobes. You’d be wrong. A couple of days later, I can’t but respond to A Terribly Polite Homophobe. A complete change of topic then for Atheism and Religion: it’s al in the axioms. Here I argue that atheists like myself and sceptical religious folk aren’t that different after all. Also, I signal boosted an amazing comment about Moore, Burchill and not being the Feministiest Feminist That Ever Feministed.
Just read Atheism and Religion: it’s all in the axioms – excellent article. I’m neither atheist nor a follower of a particular religion, and it’s eyeroll stuff when people want to lump everyone into such narrow categories based on one element of their beliefs (or disbeliefs, if you prefer).
Thank you! I’m glad you like it 🙂 And yep, it really is. I especially dislike it, though, when people who claim to be sceptics do it. If you’re going to claim an identity based on rigorous intellectual honesty, the very least you could do is, y’know, try being rigorous in your intellectual honesty even when it doesn’t suit you. Sigh.
I wrote a brief post about Planned Parenthood’s decision to drop the pro-choice label; and talked a little about the lack of women as writers and music fans.
Waiting for Life to Start: ‘As Soon as I . . .’ Do you ever let your long-term goals get in the way of living your life? Sharing Lives: What Stories Are Ours to Tell?– An article in The Atlantic claims that “mommy bloggers” (like me) are exploiting our children by sharing stories that aren’t ours to tell. Do we have any stories that are our own?
No mean girls here: the kindness of high school girls: http://humaneconnectionblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/no-mean-girls-here-kindness-of-high.html Fabulous new TEDx talk (11 min) by our co-founder/president: How to Be a Solutionary: http://humaneconnectionblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-to-be-solutionary-zoe-weils-new.html 6 ways nature in our lives can reduce the violence in the world: http://humaneconnectionblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/richard-louv-6-ways-nature-in-our-lives.html
I was having a tough week, so I didn’t write a ton. But I did express my concerns with the 2013 Golden Globes being framed as ladies night and examined how women’s bodies are ALWAYS viewed as public property.
This week at Yes Means Yes Blog: The Good Men Project requested permission to republish Meet The Predators, the first of my posts popularizing the “predator theory” research by Lisak and McWhorter. My answer was No, You May Not. Also the Bagley case ended, with Edward Bagley pleading guilty and agreeing to a 20-year sentence, of which he’ll serve at least 17. I first wrote about this case, where someone claiming to be engaged in a BDSM “master/slave” relationship actually groomed and abused a mentally handicapped minor, in Not What We Do.
And I’m back to blogging, with a post about my brother’s “unusual” reading habits, and how I made sure he read lots of books by/ about women: Boys Don’t Read Girl Books and Other Lies Society Told Me. With lots of Avatar GIFS!
An email from a student – I taught a Trans 101 workshop to seventh graders and received what may be my favorite email of all time As a reminder, my gender reassignment surgery fundraiser is ongoing. Thanks to all who have donated thus far!
Trying to deal with reconciling HEAS with 32 years of societal programming WRT fat hate. Trigger warning for weight talk and eating disorders
I lost my temper with Rush Limbaugh and only wish I could do it in person. And I posted about writing: talking about diversity–and lack thereof–in my books, and noticing I have a tendency to treat all scondary characters, PoC or not, as wallpaper to my main characters’ world. I need to work on this. What does being a writer pay? In my case, not much.
This post is not by me but I think everyone possible should read it. It is a guide to supporting victim/survivors of rape, written by a survivor herself. It contains practical advice as well as explanations of why there is no standard response by victims of sexual assault. http://bottomface.com/2013/01/20/a-guide-to-supporting-rape-survivors/ I intend to reblog it, please feel free to share freely (with accreditation to the author of course) that is why she wrote it.
I wrote a post about why not being offended by bigoted comments does not mean you’re a “better” or “stronger” person. I also wrote about a HuffPo opinion piece that berated Jodie Foster for not coming out sooner, although she kinda did.
In 50 years, cervical cancer deaths fell by 70% in the United States, transforming it from a top killer to a largely preventable disease. Despite this, you might hear some claims about the Pap test’s accuracy. What are false positives and false negatives, and what do they say about how accurate Pap testing is? What can you do to help ensure your Pap test is accurate? Why is regular Pap testing so important? We answer questions like these in honor of Cervical Health Awareness Month. Also, Roe v. Wade turns 40 next Tuesday. It’s been slowly eroded over the past four decades, but we can reclaim our lost ground. Let’s take the 2012 election — and the resounding defeat of so many of the foot soldiers in the “War Against Women” — as our chance to keep building the momentum as we move forward, rebuilding Roe in the process.
This week I wrote Part 2 in my Rebel Wilson “Aussie Pride” trilogy, this time focusing on the “female Hangover” film, Bachelorette, and finding nothing redeeming about it. http://canbebitter.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/rebel-wilson-pride-special-pt-2-bachelorette/
This week at Nursing Clio: http://nursingclio.wordpress.com/ Happiest Place for Gender Norms Rites and Wrongs: Changing a Ritual from Within *Don’t forget to “like” us on Facebook for extra content!
I’m not one of those naysayers who thought Jessica Chastain was too pretty for her role in Zero Dark Thirty. Rather, I think the hair people on the set got her hair wrong. In fact, I have a very great deal to say about hair in the movies — from Brave‘s Merida to Michael Fassbender in Prometheus — come join me for The Hair Piece: or, the subtle significance of hair onscreen
Aping morality: non-human (secular) humanists? : On the argument, supposedly to counter the assertion that we need to believe in God to be moral, that morality is evolved. And what’s wrong with it.
What the everloving privileged what?: I facepalmed my way through a frankly terrible “comedy” article, the main punchline of which is, “Ha ha people sure are desperate in these economic times”. This is totally something my mom would do: I also highlighted an image of a newspaper ad that seems to me to be fairly stalky.
We’re very close to legal marriage- the old guard religious are losing influence–but now, reinforcements from the immigrant churches of the Hispanic and African communities. Painful to see black and brown people opposing equal rights— When Worlds Collide–Culture Clash in the Marriage Equality Hearings
A post discussing AGW/CC and how we should perhaps consider another step in dealing with it. The incoherence of some who oppose the UNCRC.
I reviewed ‘Django Unchained:’ http://film-nut.tumblr.com/post/41046905836/django-unchained-2012 and chose 5 weekend links: http://film-nut.tumblr.com/post/41023660312/the-weekend-5
Over at Kiss My Wonder Woman, we talked about marginalization in the movie Premium Rush, romantic tropes in Ouran High Host Club, the perils of classic sci-fi for a feminist reader, and reviewed the movie Gangster Squad. Coming up this week we’ll be talking about Zero Dark Thirty and other Oscar contenders, and checking out Tamora Pierce’s Beka Cooper series!
This week at W* News, Laura gave us a roundup of recent feminist news stories from around the world, including the work of Rio graffiti artist Anarkia Boladona. I wrote about making the world more feminist, and Ana wrote about her her perception of feminism in Chile.
What “check your privilege” actually means http://mellowness.dreamwidth.org/12437.html To Julia Burchill: http://mellowness.dreamwidth.org/12082.html
Only one new entry in Fromage this week, and it’s personal. Probably for cat lovers only. After almost 10 beautiful years, we had to let our fur baby go Thursday before last. I’d do anything to hear you purr is a tribute to her.
Obscenity Laws And Erotica – Even in the fetish communities, or erotica publishers, or places where people with kinks congregate, you will always stumble upon someone who will be absolutely disgusted at your kink or fetish or erotica and wish to publicly and loudly deride it. Girls Are Sluts – Male privilege is something that men can get by virtue of being male, such as a higher starting salary offer out of college. Other times, however, it can be something negative that they avoid getting by virtue of not being female. One of those instances is being judged for sexual proclivities from a young age.
It’s been a busy week at Not Your Mama’s Gamer. Something for gamers and parents and caregivers of children who play games. Check out a great week of posts that include Alex’s SCAPEGOATING TROLLS: SEXISM AS AN INSTITUTIONAL NORM IN THE GAMING INDUSTRY Sam’s ACT CHILDISH!; PLAY WITH YOUR KIDS!; and Alex Liveblogs a marathon session of Walking Dead.
It’s the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – I wrote about this year’s theme and reflection materials provided by the WCC, which include a focus on casteism and the Dalit issue in India. I’ve started trying to define my thesis topic, so I wrote about approaches to ecclesiology, and about the systematic ecclesiology of Neil Ormerod, an Australian theologian.
i am officially 43 min. late for the official self-promotion day…i’m never on time for anything anymore. This week I posted talking rape with boys: can we beat back rape culture? . After hearing the news of the alleged gang rape in Steubenville, OH, I felt I needed to talk to my 15 yr old son about the rape culture that shrouds college campuses especially. If we want to change the situation, we need to work on our sons to help them push back against a culture that tells them rape is ok.
Paul Ryan’s “sue the rape victim” bill made me see red, so I wrote about the breaking point for people to actually emigrate from the US: http://www.theepicadventurer.com/2013/01/american-politics-i.html
This week at the Secret Histories Project, I ask: Why do we need Secret Histories, anyway? A short excerpt: It’s a hard thing to feel that you don’t have a past, or that everyone in history who was ever like you has been shut down, vanished and so lost that you can’t even read about them any more. Not surprisingly, you tend to end up with the impression that one day soon, you’ll be shut down, silenced and lost to history too. (And do you know what? I’m a white cis non-disabled woman who did have the resources to go to university. I’m only sitting on the tip of what is a very large and scary iceberg here, and still it freezes me through to the bone sometimes.) Here is the thing though: no matter who you are — female, LGBTQ+, person with disabilities, PoC, neurodiverse, working class — you have a history too.
As a teacher, the debate about whether or not to add armed police to schools has me all riled up. I vehemently disagree with that idea: http://smallstrokesbigoaks.com/2013/01/21/after-the-inauguration-lets-keep-talking-about-gun-control/ I’m noticing an epidemic among my female friends in their late twenties and early thirties. None of us is happy with where we are, and we keep comparing ourselves to others. We need to stop this: http://smallstrokesbigoaks.com/2013/01/17/stop-comparing-ourselves-to-others/
I started doing my FemmoStroppo Reader linkfests again. Some arsehats are trying to make an online poll (yeah, I know) look more representative of a lack of women identifying as atheists than it probably (BWIMC) is, and using that to dismiss the concerns of atheist women about the atheist community: Atheist women’s numbers matter. Be counted in the Atheist Census Online. I also posted a request for recent Feminism 101 links at the Finally, A Feminism 101 Blog last week, but I think I forgot to link it here: Call For Feminism 101 Links IV
On re-reading the above, I should clarify: the Atheist Census people are just collecting data. The arsehats are misusing that data all on their own, and do not appear to be associated with the Atheist Census people at all.
This week I reviewed S.M. Stirling’s A Taint in the Blood. It does a decent job on the vampiric power set, but I was Not Amused at the way the book minimizes the trauma of rape and abuse to make for a more dramatic rescue sequence. I also polished up Something from the Nightside (popcorn urban fantasy) and Kris Longknife: Mutineer to put up on Amazon and Goodreads– it’s interesting to go back and see what I still remember writing most vividly, since I’m still annoyed that a premise like “debutante in space joins the Navy” wound up falling so flat.
Today I wrote about attempting to raise my daughter outside of certain heteronormative bounds. http://listsofthisthatandtheother.blogspot.com/2013/01/felicitys-first-boyfriend.html An excerpt: “This is part of the problem though, isn’t it? It seems so innocent and sweet, to tease about babies dating… And haven’t I been tempted to do the same thing with some of the New York mamas with some seriously sweet and adorable baby boys? But I abstain, because what I said to my mom is absolutely true: I don’t know if Felicity will be interested in men or women when she grows up. I don’t know if she’ll decide she wants to identify as a female. For all I know, she may resent the fact that she has such a feminine name and go by Brian instead (her middle name, which I’m suddenly convinced we wrote out as ‘Brain’ on her birth certificate), and decide to have her breasts removed. I do know that whoever and whatever she chooses to identify as, I want to support her completely. I never want her to feel any shame about who she is, what she feels, or what she wants. I don’t want to assume anything about her that will cause her harm, or the harm of others.”