Items of interest found recently in my RSS feed. (This one’s a bumper edition.) What did I miss? Please share what you've been reading (and writing!) in the comments.

• Dear Hollywood, there’s this thing called sexual harassment

– “I’ve heard Hollywood wasn’t considered subject to those rules when it came to casting – you obviously can’t cast a Latina to play Abraham Lincoln. Fair enough, except almost every role was being written for a white man – roles that could just as easily have been written for Latinas if Hollywood weren’t so heavily invested in stereotypes.”

• So, Like, What’s The Big Deal With Transcripts and Stuff, Anyway?

– “One of the things that’s been really exciting to me is that as the push to use transcripts and image descriptions has developed, networks of volunteers to handle transcription and image description have arisen.”

• Reform or Renounce? Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Muslim Women

– “Hirsi Ali remains distant and seemingly uninterested in the efforts of Muslim-American women to redefine their faith. Her book, while poignantly capturing the weight of structural inequalities crippling Muslim women from Somalia to Pakistan, refuses to take seriously the efforts of Western Muslim women who are refusing to let mullahs define Islam.”

• Sure a Gay Guy Can Play Straight: Watch Sean Hayes Prove It

– “I mean really people, is that what we have been reduced to? Do you think that any of those straight actors engaged in those hot and steamy love scenes are really getting their groove on? It’s called acting for a reason. “

• The reliable hysteria of Little Girls Gone Wild

– “Those girls in the dance competition are great dancers. But we can’t talk about them as dancers, because all we can see are their bodies and their clothes. And isn’t that what we’re telling our kids not to do?

But no, we’re looking at their bodies and we’re seeing evidence that Kids Have Gone Bad. At the tender ages of 8 and 9, these girls are the new Elvis the Pelvis.”

• “Atlas Shrugged” Movie to Remain Faithful to Spirit of “Atlas Shrugged,” Be Terrible

– This movie sounds so bad that it could possibly become a camp classic – and at least it will be shorter than trying to read the book.

• Title IX, cheerleading, and feminism, or, Penn&Teller are idiots

– "So it's P&T's much-vaunted free market that's actually driving cheer teams away from safety! Who would have guessed?"

• Luxury or Necessity? (UPDATE)

– “Clearly, over time we’re defining more and more items as necessities rather than luxuries:”

• Transcription Stuffs

– “I have no idea how busy it will be – maybe it will just be a “neutral” place that people can transcript dump. I am content with that, although I want it to be wildly successful and full of much transcripty crowd-sourcing goodness.”

• Living by Seventeen Magazine's rules for young women

– “Jamie is working on the Seventeen Magazine Project during which she attempts to spend one month applying the advice from Seventeen Magazine to her daily life and blogging about the results.”

• Me, pissing all over the World Cup

– “I don’t think liking it is a sign of anything really special or horrible about a person.

But I would disagree with those who claim that following World Cup makes you part of the “world community.” It makes you part of the sports-watching world community, which is largely male and definitely male-centric.”

• The Government campaign against researchers who dared question income management

– “efforts by Minister Macklin and colleagues to undermine a study from the Menzies School of Health Research that casts doubts on the benefits claimed for income management in NT Aboriginal communities.”

• Youth privacy at risk under the Mad Monk

– “A recent legal case in Melbourne, combined with the increased likelihood of an Abbott prime ministership, has resurrected fears about young people’s medical privacy.”

• Privacy? Only criminals want privacy!

– “Don’t worry, though – I’m sure these extraordinary powers will never be abused. They’re just there to be used sparingly and appropriately by nice honest men who are above corruption and greed and the petty failings of us ordinary human beings. Promise. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

• Are we being governed by people who haven't read 1984?

– “Got that? I can’t get any information about the condition of a family member in hospital, but the government wants unchecked access to my browsing history. There you have the privacy laws. Due To Privacy, the individual is hog-tied but the government can do whatever it likes.”

Categories: linkfest

Tags: homophobia, islam, privacy, Read-ems, sexual harassment, sexualisation, sport