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.

• Ask The Panthers What Would Happen If The Teabaggers Were Black

– “But it ain’t ‘speculation’ what the reaction of whiteness and the Feds would be to an armed group of Black people calling for radical change to the system. All you have to do is pick up the history books and go back to the 1966 formation in Oakland of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense.”

• Do Kick-Ass Action Heroines Move Gender Stereotypes Forward or Just Perpetuate The Current Ones?

– “While we may want to think that films where there is a kick-ass heroine who maybe saves the world or maybe kills the bad guys is a place where there seems to be some gender equity because girls get to do what the boys do, the fact is according to the research this is so not true. Women are second class citizen in films even when they kill people and kick ass.”

• Court Gives Women the Right to Sue Wal-Mart for Gender Discrimination

– “Dissenting judges expressed worry that this ruling will open the door to many more Title VII class action lawsuits against national and international companies. Personally, I’m just bemused that they say that as though holding the rich and powerful responsible for their discrimination against the vulnerable and oppressed is a bad and scary thing. “

• We Know the Way to End Prison Rape. Is It Too Expensive?

– “Prison rape can be prevented, and some corrections authorities are already moving to implement the commission’s standards in an attempt to do just that. But other corrections leaders have shot back with one major complaint—ending prison rape sounds expensive.”

• Boycotting Arizona

– “A spreading call for an economic boycott of Arizona after its adoption of a tough immigration law that opponents consider racially discriminatory worried business leaders on Monday and angered the governor.”

• Oklahoma passes state-mandated object-rape law

– “It’s official: the State of Oklahoma now requires a woman to be raped with a vaginal probe if she wants an abortion. The doctors committing the rape also have the right to withhold information from the pregnant woman about the fetus, such as the presence of defects.”

• Dinnergate!

– “If you live outside the state of Victoria in Australia, you might not know that the ex-police Commissioner, Christine Nixon, has been roasted slowly over coals in court more than once in the last week for having the temerity to eat dinner (with no alcohol) on her day off. A “day off” during which she went to work.”

Categories: linkfest

Tags: australia, blogging, Read-ems