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.

• The Jill Question: What is the Role of Privileged White Women in the Reproductive Justice Movement?

– “For almost two hours we talked about the how the movement’s laser-focus on abortion, and to a lesser extent, birth control, neglected many other issues, concerns that were more salient and critical to women and communities of color. Issues like health care and economic security. We talked about how the language used in our messaging and other communications alienated women by focusing on privacy and individualistic frames, and failing to incorporate ideas of family and community.”

• In defense of home birth

– “Delivering a baby safely requires skill. So do home improvements. We expect that appropriately trained people can build or extend their own homes, why don’t we expect that appropriately trained people can deliver children?”

• Weekly Feminist Reader

– from Feministing

• You Respect A Cisperson’s Right To Choose Their Name, Why Not A Transperson?

– the power of the names we choose to use

• Links in my roundup like grains of sand

– more geek feminiswm

• Caster Semenya Has Been Declared Intersex

– “Had Semenya had a eurocentric hair style, nail polish, and makeup on, when she raced, how many of her detractors would even have thought to raise an objection? They would have seen the performance of femininity and accepted her. We teach gender performativity from birth and little girls that are slow to assimilate are often referred to as tom boys. Little boys that display what we have decided to be traditionally feminine characteristics, are bullied and ordered to hide their emotions. “

• Our Big Fat Intolerant Society

– “When I read this article, I was struck by how closely it parallels what autistic rights activists have been writing about the “war on autism” rhetoric and the use of cost statistics in awareness campaigns. One might say that the human species has not advanced as far beyond primitive tribalism as we like to think. When social issues are framed in terms of battling against a dangerous enemy, such language incites fear and anger on a mostly subconscious level. We react instinctively as if we were our prehistoric ancestors going to war to defend the tribe’s scarce resources against invaders.”

• The Panic on the Potomac and Media Rumors

– MSM reports rumours as fact, Coast Guard and airports respond, shock horror no outrage at their gullibility – yet if the rumours had been spread on Twitter everyone would be making jokes

• My Not Drinking Alcohol Is Not Your Problem

– a great post from Kylie on social pressures

• If you can fake authenticity you have it made

– an insight into just how stage-managed American political campaigns are

• OMG I Justice Sotomayor!

– “one of the things that corporate personhood entitles corporations to is free speech protections, and, because political donations are considered free speech, that’s what paved the way for our Congress to be bought and sold by corporations.”

• Why Don’t We Hear Bush’s Name Every Single Day?

– “”The Republican recession” has a nice ring to it and should have been the mantra for months now. It certainly should be the mantra of the 2010 mid-term. And all those facts and figures about the Bush years should be part of every Democrat’s stump speech. People need to know this stuff, not just for political reasons but because they need to start understanding where these conservative policies lead. If the Democrats don’t use the greatest example of conservative failure since Hoover to illustrate that, it’s going to happen all over again.”

• Drop It Like It’s Hot

– Renee’s linkfest

• Success: best measured in units of husband-approval

– “Comments are the scourge of the non-feminist internet. The more general and mainstream the site, the more bigoted and venomous the comments, and usually I avoid reading them unless I’m feeling very masochistic.brbrBut I always read comments on recipe sites because they are 1) informative, and 2) quite low on bigotry (I suppose it is difficult to inject a lot of racist / sexist bile when you’re commenting on something as apolitical as spinach and potato soup).brbrBut recipe comments suffer from their own pollution.”

• Bumper blogroll update

– lots of great new blogs!

Categories: linkfest

Tags: blogging, Read-ems