Femmostroppo Reader – June 10, 2010

Items of interest found recently in my RSS feed. What did I miss? Please share what you've been reading (and writing!) in the comments.

• Maureen Dowd…gets it right?

– “If I believed, as our culture seems to, that men are rapacious beasts whose thirst for violence cannot be quelled, I would have given up on all of this so, so long ago. I would have given up on this blog, on daring to talk and write about sexual violence, on feminist organizing, on having the audacity to travel alone whenever and wherever I please. I would have given up on men, and I would have given up on my own freedom. But luckily, I haven’t. Because I believe that, in the majority of cases (though certainly not all), rape happens because of the intricate process of socialization that teaches boys that rape is okay, or at the very least, not a big deal. This process is part of the enormous and far-reaching tentacles of rape culture, the cultural meme that encourages and condones sexual violence against women.”

• Fact is a feminist issue

– “These articles not only continue to feed the public’s poor understanding of science, they serve to add legitimacy to gender stereotypes. “I’m not being sexist; a scientist said so!””

• CNN editorial FAIL: Obama risks scaring white folks if he goes Angry Black Man

– “Wow. Most people tuned into the racism still threaded within the American quilt know that Barack Obama has much less leeway to show anger than if he were white. It’s how the cookie crumbles. It’s not surprising that when the MSM tries to approach this subject, it does a double-dip FAIL in the editorial bullpen. “

• This Is Not Education: Abuse of Autistic Students in Pennsylvania

– “Content warning: This post contains discussions about abuse of people with disabilities, including physical assault and the use of restraints.”

• On Interpersonal Badness

– “If somebody is investing time, resources, and energy into convincing you of your own worthlessness, that same somebody has revealed to you that they have a lot to lose if you don’t believe them.”

• The latest essentialism go-round: do we dare to discuss?

– Mary does a link round-up on the John Tierney crapola-fest (yay, I don’t have to now!)