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.

(Bit of a big one, so links are behind the cut!

• Gender and Anatomy

– “Its striking that these notions about gendered bodies are inserted into even seemingly scientifically oriented things.”

• On Misogyny and Misandry

– “My point is not that man-hating would be nonexistent. It’s not. But it’s rare when compared to woman-hating, and the latter is much more socially expected, ignored and even approved. Both men and some women engage in the latter but I can’t remember ever seeing a man engage in the former (in the sense of saying really nasty things about his own gender) and the number of women I’d call man-haters is quite small, too.”

• Carnival Against Sexual Violence 90

– the usual essential reading

• Women Guilty Of Feeling Guilty? Conclusion: Reasons Are Genetic.

– “Oops. That’s not quite what I thought I was going to learn here. I thought it was going to be all about hormones and genes and shit. Instead, I’m being told that an egalitarian view isn’t a good one to raise boys with. What would be better, then? A feudal view? A patriarchal view? A Taliban view?”

• The Femivore’s Dilemma – NYTimes.com

– “There is even an economic argument for choosing a literal nest egg over a figurative one. Conventional feminist wisdom held that two incomes were necessary to provide a family’s basic needs — not to mention to guard against job loss, catastrophic illness, divorce or the death of a spouse. Femivores suggest that knowing how to feed and clothe yourself regardless of circumstance, to turn paucity into plenty, is an equal — possibly greater — safety net. After all, who is better equipped to weather this economy, the high-earning woman who loses her job or the frugal homemaker who can count her chickens?”

• Why Gabby VS Hollywood debates annoy me.

– “By focusing on Gabby the media are subtly (or not-so-subtly) invoking a weight loss narrative because it’s the only narrative they know for a fat woman, the only way they see her having a possibility, they only way they see her existing. It’s why they are confounded by Gabby herself.”

• Is your child a bully?

– “The other weird aspect of this that I can’t get my head around, is that it feels like people divide kids into “good kids that might get bullied” and “bad kids that might bully others”. Of course, I don’t think anyone thinks their kid falls into the latter category. But just because my kid was being bullied, doesn’t mean he wasn’t doing his own bullying.”

• links for 2010-03-13

– Linkdump from Racialicious

• Sexual Assault Leads to Exposure of Police Views on Trans* People

– “Like bigots of all stripes, these officers seem to blame their prejudices on the group being oppressed. If only that group wouldn’t behave so “poorly,” then there would supposedly be no prejudice.”

• Global warming denialism, part 3: The difference between skeptics and denialists

– “The skeptical movement is limiting itself and its impact by coddling libertarians peddling kooky global warming denialist theories, and the sooner they’re pushed out, I’m afraid the better skepticism will be. “

• We are not only beautiful: Whore feminism in 15 points

– Most thought-provoking

• All Hail the King!

– “There’s so much awesomeness in this woman and her story, I’m not even going to try to summarize, but I promise, it’ll make you stand up and cheer.”

• Taps

– “He said that it was a matter of personal shame that he, himself, had used that kind of language while campaigning in the Pacific in World War II. It was only later that he realized terms of racism and hatred were part of a deliberate program of brainwashing, intended to dehumanize he and his shipmates so they would do any damn fool thing they were told to do.
War was brutal enough, he said, but there’s little you can do about that. What you can do is not take it into yourself, make yourself brutal and coarse. “

• New feature: Painful vagina? Your poor husband!

– “S’s experience with vulvar vestibulitis – which makes penetrative sex painful – highlighted the phallocentric medical establishment and limited definitions of sex”

• You Femsplainers Just See Sexism Everywhere

– “And that’s a perfect circle, ladeez. You are not supposed to notice sexist behavior, and everything in our society is carefully designed to help you understand and accept it as natural and just the way things are and evolution and the battle of the sexes and God’s will and girls like pink and boys love trucks and men are better at spatial hoo-hah and women are so verbal and boys will be boys and act like a lady and don’t be a slut and men can’t help themselves and blah blah blah. If you should, by some amazing effort of will and education, manage to pull the curtain aside, there will be a great show of smoke and fire and booming voices declaiming from a huge green glaring disembodied head “pay no attention to that patriarchy behind the curtain!” Because, well, you might notice that it’s a humbug.”

• Tenth Carnival of Feminist Parenting

– A great carnival!

• The hard-boiled man-hating chick trope

– “She’s a strawperson – the woman who unreasonably hates all men – and it’s much easier to set her up and tear her down than it is to address the likelihood that if our heroes were faced with some chick doin’ a man’s job, they’d probably react in a perfectly sexist manner.”

• Could we update the language please?

– “The first extract quotes the Productivity Commission’s research, but the other two are the journalist’s words. The implication of her words are that paid jobs are work, but staying at home caring for your baby is not work.

It’s an old old story, I know, that work done in the home primarily by women is not recognised as real work. Only work which results in cash-in-the-hand is real work.”

• Progressive teenage bloggers: a list and some thoughts

– Chally shares links to some great teenage bloggers

Categories: linkfest

Tags: blogging, bullying, carnival, global warming, hollywood, misogyny, race & racism, Read-ems, sexual violence, tropes