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.

• Finding Fault In The Binary Of Guilt

– “If Paul’s thinking is valid then it must be wrong that we have a binary system for all crimes including murder. If Paul walks in a good neighborhood during the day then the man who murders him from across the street without warning is fully at fault for shooting Paul to death.

If, however, Paul is in a bad neighborhood and swears at a mugger rather than immediately handing over his wallet then Paul is mostly at fault for being shot to death. The man who shot him with the intent to kill should not be convicted. Paul’s logic tells us so.

Yet unlike the rapists Paul excuses, Paul most likely understands that both of these murderers are a danger to others. Paul’s logic prevents him from viewing how the acquittal of certain rapists puts all those Paul views as blameless at greater risk of being raped. In Paul’s worldview men who rape someone labeled as a tease can never be the same men who rape children or adults who did everything Paul believes they should do.”

• The De-Anonymization of the Internet Begins In Earnest

– Sobering.

• Women of Color and the Anti-Choice Focus on Eugenics

– “Sanger’s personal beliefs on eugenics were and are wrong and do not hold any place in the mission of reproductive justice or reproductive health care providers. We do not associate the Ford Motor Company with anti-semitism, despite the well documented history of it’s founder Henry Ford in collaborating with Nazis and we should not associate contemporary reproductive health care providers or the reproductive justice movement with eugenics because of some views expressed by Margaret Sanger.

But the truth has little to do with the black genocide scare tactic. The truth is that reproductive health care providers open clinics to provide access to the full range of reproductive health care services in communities that need safe and affordable health care. Those services include yearly cancer screenings, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, education on how to prevent sexually transmitted infections, education on how to prevent unplanned pregnancy and abortion counseling and services.”

• Today in Fat Hatin'

– “And it’s not like I care whether anyone actively wants to be like me when she grows up; I do, however, care a lot that there are little girls whose greatest fear is being like me because they see it as a fate worse than death. And the reason I care about that is because some of them are going to look like me, whether they want to or not—and some of them are going to die trying to avoid that fate.”

• "Hook-up culture's" bad rap

– Damn. It’s too good to just pull one quote. READ IT.

• Shocker: Small condoms don't sell

– “I find it kind of amusing that we take it as a given that men shouldn’t have to come to terms with the penis nature gave them. Most women are, after all, notoriously self-conscious about their weight, yet I don’t see anyone suggesting that we change clothing sizes from small, medium and large to itty bitty, teeny tiny and small.”

• How effective is fact bombing?

– “Clearly, no hardcore anti-choicers were going to change their minds, but since this Twitter feed was well-publicized, it’s likely that some fence sitters came in and saw screeching about the evils of contraception from anti-choicers, and that could have an effect. But by and large, I think the most prominent effect was helping center the pro-choicers in the room on the fact that anti-choicers are warring against very normal sexual choices in our culture. “

• Raining on Canadian women's parade

– “After the fans filtered out of the stadium, the ladies returned to the rink still in uniform with gold medals draped around their necks. They laid on the ice, poured champagne in each other’s mouths and soaked up the Olympic glory. Their revelry hardly would have garnered any attention, except for one minor detail: there was an Associated Press photographer on hand to capture it all on film.”

• "Fake Rape Victim Sends Innocent Man To Prison". Um WHAT?

– I echo – WHAT?

• The (Straight) Male Gaze Ignores Britian’s Sexiest Male Farmer

– “a great example of the way that the straight, male gaze shapes news coverage. The coverage in these newspapers, ostensibly for both male and female, gay and straight readers, nevertheless covered the competition as if all of the readers are primarily, or only, interested in the hot chick.”

• Woman Live-Tweets Her Abortion On Twitter | The Frisky

– ““I’m doing this to de-mystify abortion,” she says. “I’m doing this so other women know, ‘Hey, it’s not nearly as terrifying as I had myself worked up thinking it was.’ It’s just not that bad.”

• Every now and then

– “I believe that by recognising same-sex relationships in marriage, the relationship of same sex couples who choose not to marry are also validated, as the option would be there even if they chose not to take it up. They would be free to reject marriage, rather than be rejected by it. The privilege accorded to heterosexuality would be challenged.”

• British PSA about Dangers of Cabs Implies Rape (Trigger Warning)

– “I find the images disturbing. I’m pretty sure there is a way to get across the need to use licensed, dispatched cabs (assuming that other cabs really do represent a significant danger) without resorting to showing a terrified woman lying on her back with text that mimics what we often hear women screaming or begging when rape is portrayed on TV or in movies. If nothing else, they could be pretty upsetting to women who have been raped and have to see them in public places.”

• I’m not here for your inspiration

– “The point of this post isn’t “here I am, talking about an article you can’t read, and being as sarcastic as possible, aren’t I witty?”. It’s actually to talk seriously about the way disabled people are written about. We’re allowed to be inspiring stories of overcoming adversity – and often those stories focus on the difficulties our loved ones have, and how hard it can be to have a disabled person in your life – or we can be a passive victim of crime. That’s it.” (Plus Disability Bingo Card)

• Wanda Sykes and Rosie O'Donnell talk about kicking open the closet door

– “among other topics, she and Rosie delv
ed into the subject of coming out.”

Categories: linkfest

Tags: blogging, Read-ems