This is so the worst thing that you will read all day
[Content note: rape culture, victim-blaming, slut-shaming, #steubenville]
Friday Hoyden: Ela Bhatt (recovered)
International Women’s Day could not have a better Friday Hoyden than Ela Bhatt. A member of the international social activist organisation The Elders, Bhatt comes from India, where she received the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development in 2011.
Nugget of Awesome: I wouldn’t mind losing my privileges if it meant other people were treated the same way as I am
I like that I don’t worry about being beaten for my sexuality by bigots. I like that I don’t worry about being pulled over by a cop because my skin color. I like that I don’t have to be worried about being under paid because of my gender and race. I like that I don’t worry about people attacking me for finding out that my sex at birth and gender match. I like that I don’t worry about a bunch of people making laws over what goes on in my body. I like that I can speak out and not worry about being physically assaulted due to my size and gender.
Pamela Denoon Lecture 2013: Clementine Ford
This year’s Pamela Denoon Lecture at the ANU in Canberra will be given by Clementine Ford on the topic “Misogyny, Power and the Media”.
6:30pm, Wednesday 6 March, free and open to the public.
Nugget of Awesome: You Need To Get Off My Foot
If you step on my foot, you need to get off my foot.
If you step on my foot without meaning to, you need to get off my foot.
If you step on my foot without realizing it, you need to get off my foot.
Expectations of Deception
Gary Younge is upset about the level of deception which is present within everyday society. He feels this is dangerous, and we’re in danger of subsiding into a culture of fakery and deceit. He uses the examples of Beyonce’s lip-synching the US national anthem during the presidential inaguration, the discovery of horse DNA in budget beef burgers in the UK, and Lance Armstrong’s very public confession of taking performance enhancing drugs during his professional cycling career as examples of this tendency.
I have a slightly different take on things. I think it comes down to the tyranny of expectations.
Thoughts on Australia Day / Invasion Day
Wesley Enoch, Artistic Director of the Queensland Theatre Company, and always a wise voice from the Aboriginal community, wrote this about the significance of what we have chosen to commemorate today. I found it both insightful and moving, and (with his permission) wanted to share it:
How Dare You Call Me A *ist
I see it all the time, both online and off – Person X writes/says something, Person Y says “gee, what you just said/did was kinda *ist” and Person X comes back with “how dare you call me a *ist” (or Person Z butts in with “how dare you call X a *ist”) .
But behaviour is never a fully accurate reflection of character. Bad habits we engage in unthinkingly don’t necessarily make us generally bad people or even generally thoughtless people, but this tends to be the reaction to having those bad habits challenged as marginalising behaviours – that the challenger is calling us a bad person.
The point is that this one particular act that is being criticised has problematic cultural assumptions embedded within it, and those problematic cultural assumptions are what need to be challenged.
The controversy in writing about your children
This article in The Atlantic by Phoebe Maltz Bovy, “The ethical implications of parents writing about their children” is incredibly unforgiving of mother writers and bloggers. She sets the benchmark very low for the test of appropriateness with writing and it’s anything that may embarrass your children when they’re older. My god, I think the [...]
Friday Hoyden Quicklink: Beate Sirota Gordon
I had never heard of Beate Sirota Gordon until I saw this piece on Shakesville saying she died earlier this week. One of those people who make me wonder what I’ve been doing with my time, and why I haven’t made more of an effort to contribute to humanity. Here is more in the New [...]
Cultural diversity vs feminism
[Cross posted at Ariane's Little World] The global coverage of the horrific death of a woman from Delhi has certainly shone the light on the difficulties of navigating universal women’s rights in a world where cultures are not all the same, and are certainly not equal in power. As usual the Oz has lead the [...]
Quicklink: NRA Press Conference
Ugh. The hypocrisy of calling for a national database of the mentally ill while decrying any suggestions for a national database of gun owners is breathtaking.
Those who do not know their internet history are doomed to repeat it, clearly.
By tigtog on February 15, 2013
Datum the First: On April 8, 2007 Tim O’Reilly wrote a Draft Blogger’s Code Of Conduct …In the nearly seven years since, many similar initiatives have been proposed.
Posted in ethics & philosophy, history, Meta, social justice, Sociology | Tagged blogging, comments policy, false equivalence, interblog, silencing tactics, vitriol | 15 Responses