history
those who do not know are doomed to repeat etc, besides it’s fascinating
Friday Hoyden: Kathrine Switzer
In 1967 an angry race official tried to stop Kathrine Switzer from running the Boston Marathon. He failed, she changed her society.
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Roseanne Barr wants the US presidential debate back on topic #righteousrant
Roseanne Barr on Ann and Mitt Romney and the Mommy Wars: “why bring out this fake issue again now? Could it be to divert the conversation from the continued restrictions being placed on women’s reproductive rights and make us forget that both parties are socialists for their own causes…?” – and Daily Beast puts this righteous rant from a woman who is running for POTUS in the Entertainment section.
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Actually, fairytales weren’t always so sexist
What modern mother hasn’t cringed at the pink and passive fairy tale princesses served up to her impressionable girl? The Disney versions of Snow White and Cinderella, Belle and Rapunzel are heroines of such vapid foolishness one wonders how they survived into the 21st century. The answer is that they are rooted in a tenacious [...]
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Giveaway: Why Study Women’s History?
“Working with college students, I often recall myself as a sophomore at Barnard College in 1966. I wanted nothing to do with women’s movements or women’s history. When my advisor, Annette Baxter, suggested that I enroll in her course on U.S. women’s history, I had the nerve to reply that I would rather study “real” history.”
In 1-3 paragraphs, how would you have responded to the young Ms Freedman, and to women like her?
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Sunday Poet: Maya Angelou
Dr Maya Angelou has changed autobiographical writing forever for all women, but especially for black women. I cannot tell you how much I love Dr Angelou’s poem, Still I Rise and there is something so special about hearing her recite the poem herself rather than reading it – you really get a sense of how [...]
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Because women’s equality has not always existed like grass and trees.. it had to be fought for
For the people who don’t believe sexism still exists this tumblr, A Thousand Reasons is great.. and here’s the story behind it.
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“Pardon me for being born into a nation of racists”
An iconic image showing Aboriginal rights activist, Gary Foley with a placard reading, “Pardon me for being born into a nation of racists”. It was part of a protest against the South African Springboks rugby tour of Australia in 1971 during apartheid.
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Big Shiny Public Tech vs Little Nifty Domestic Tech
Which sort of tech actually makes the most daily difference to the largest number of people?
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I missed Darwin Day!
It was the 203rd anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth yesterday. Here, have a few of my favourite Darwin pics/posters/macros.
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Hating Australia Day from afar
Today is the second Australia Day since I moved to the United States. One of the most surprising things for me to experience out of Australia was people saying–even in the American South!–Australia’s really racist, isn’t it? And personally, I hate that. I hate that there is such a strong implicit idea of who an Australian “is,” and how racist and dependent on assimilation that is. I hate the way that is enforced with violence and ugly rhetoric, and I hate the policies that our country mobilises against Aboriginal communities and refugees.
And yet. For all that I hate what Australia Day represents, I am more homesick than usual today.
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BFTP: The myth of bra burning feminists
In 1968, some activists demonstrated against the Miss America beauty pageant and threw objects of “female oppression” – bras, high-heeled shoes, girdles, curlers – into a trash can. They were arguing about liberation – there was never any bra-burning – but the myth of the feminist as a bra-burner was created by the western media.
There was also a crucial word missed in the description of the trashed bras.
Reclaiming ‘cunt’ with kids
I remember being with a group of feminist friends talking about the names we use for our vulvas. (Yes, such conversations really do happen among feminists, we’re that cliché). A radical feminist in the group, most of us were, explained that knowing the history and meaning of the various terms she’d chosen to reclaim ‘cunt’. [...]
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