Feminism Friday from the Feed-reader
A few must-reads highlighting several very different feminist core issues from the recent posts at Feministe:
Octogalore: Opt Out, Push Out, and Pink Collar Paths
Well, it’s critical for workplaces to become more family friendly. Single parents, poor parents, don’t have the option for one parent not to work. And for women and men to have equal access to unemployment benefits.
But it’s also critical for this “family friendly” path not to
How more vile (and thick (and don’t forget vile)) can McCain possibly be?
He pimped his wife to voters as a potential contestant in a local “beauty contest” that involves skimpy swimwear, topless parades and simulated sex acts – (edited to addwhich to be fair I’m sure he didn’t know was quite so “risque”, but it’s still totally objectifying his wife). (Video here of both McCain’s “quip” and a typical night’s entertainment in the contest) As I’m sure you’ll all
Got Breastmilk? Californian Milk Board Threatens Batik Artist Mum
Remember when Jennifer Laycock of The Lactivist was stomped on by Big Pork for selling a T-shirt saying “The other white milk”?
“Your use of this slogan also tarnishes the good reputation of the National Pork Board’s mark, in light of your apparent attempt to promote the use of breastmilk beyond merely for infant consumption”,
the Pork Board whined, with a side serve of insinuation that The Lactivist was a sexual lactation fetish site. (Or were they really, truly freaked out that she is just fine with toddlers and preschoolers breastfeeding, not just infants – and thought that that any association with all that booby malarkey would reflect badly on an organisation that intensively tortures pigs before making them into bacon? We’ll never know.)
The gap between American justice and that of the rest of the world is enormous and growing
Xeni Jardin notes that it’s official: more than 1% of the US population is now in jail or prison. The stats one finds can be a little confusing because of that particular US distinction (between jail (a remand facility for those awaiting trial or convicted of misdemeanours) and prison (convicted criminals only)), but most studies find between 750 to 800 persons imprisoned per 100,000 US populace. Other nations treat jail/gaol and prison as synonyms, so their incarceration rates may well include those held on remand or for misdemeanours, making the difference in figures between the US and other countries even more striking.
Troy Buswell to quit at last?
Despite recently surviving a series of leadership spills, sleazebag chair-sniffer and sexual-harasser Troy Buswell, leader of the WA Liberal Party [1], is expected to stand down today.
Buswell has the majority support of the remainder of his motley crew (resignations have been rife these past few months), but his support from the Party as a whole and the WA population is low.
Stay tuned.
ETA 12:06 pm: Live press
The Great Scrabble Firewall
Facebookers have probably been following the saga of Scrabulous, the online game that looks and behaves rather like Scrabble. Scrabulous was well put together, and allowed me to play with my friends all over the globe, in group and one-on-one games.
Well, it was fun while it lasted. Despite their IP claims being rather, erm, shaky, Mattel-Hasbro seems to have brought down Scrabulous; it’s now only available for people who don’t live in the USA or Canada.
“Not to worry!”, they bugled. “We’ll bring out our own authentic version for you!”
Thread of the week: playful pedants alert
From John Scalzi: Another Entry in the Annals of “People Who Haven’t the Slightest Idea What They’re Saying” Awww, look. Someone’s trying to lecture me on speech and the Internet! A fabulous exploration into what does and what does not constitute a repression of “free speech”. The comments thread (alert: very long) includes a welcome [...]
They lied about the air too
Like Andrew Bartlett, I agree entirely with Andrew Bolt regarding the shameful weaseling by the International Olympic Committee regarding the whole idea of granting the 2008 Olympic games to the authoritarian dictatorship of China in the first place. Addit: just remember our own Federal Government’s wish to filter the internet is not a hugely superior [...]
Moving from thieving money from children into casual racism
This post is from regular Guest Hoyden baroquestar. Baroquestar is a 28 year old singer who has just completed (CONGRATULATIONS!) her Masters degree in museum geekery. She likes to make trouble in her spare time. ~~~ I will admit, I’ve been walking past this particular outrage for a couple of weeks now, and it was [...]
Quicklinks: Immigration Detention reform and a new indigenous representative body
Andrew Bartlett: Mandatory detention (sort of) scrapped It is wonderful to see the news that the federal government plans to finally scrap mandatory indefinite immigration detention and adopt the common sense (and much cheaper) approach that people should not be locked up for extended periods just because they are without a valid visa, unless there [...]
Sunday inspiration: simple, effective action
Via Catherine Price at Salon comes the story of Olga Murray, who devised a simple, practical philanthropic solution that has virtually eradicated a tradition of starving Nepalese farming families selling their daughters into indentured servitude. 1n 1989 Murray was horrified to learn that in poor farming districts a daughter would be sold into domestic slavery [...]
Friday Hoyden: Joy Nash
Ok, so this was *everywhere* last year. But some of the readers who’ve come aboard since then may not have seen it. The discussion today about oppressive beauty ideals and the resultant social insecurities that lead to immense profits for the cosmetic surgery industry reminded me of how the same social insecurities also lead to [...]
Drongo day at HAT: Disingenuous troll of the week
The comment below was NOT approved for publication on my Finally, A Feminism 101 Blog. Free Clue, TrollDude – quoting Twisty Faster’s most infamous phrase ever is a big giveaway that you really just want to stir up a storm. However, I thought some dissection of this absurdity might provide some general amusement. Name: Open [...]
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