Items of interest come across recently in my feed-reader. What did I miss? Leave your own interesting links in comments.
n.b. Comments threads have not necessarily been read. Some may be NSFW or triggering, so please report back any problems you encounter so the post can be marked.

• Lara Logan assaulted in Egypt

– “When male journalists are harmed or even killed on the job — and I’d be willing to bet that male journalists are assaulted and killed more often than female journalists — the media narrative is, basically, “He was brave and this is a tragedy.” But when it happens to a woman, the narrative shifts to, “Should women be doing this?””

• “How could they not have known?!”

– “Despite the fact that women are much more visible in many geeky communities, there still seems to be an undercurrent of hatred from a small but loud segment of population. I wish I could suggest a solution that doesn’t winding up with just a set of variations on the unicorn law where it’s always up to women in the communities to bring this stuff up (and face the backlash from people who didn’t know and don’t want to believe).”

• WTF Files: Justin Bieber Touches Esperanza Spalding’s Hair

– “I thought Spalding was rather gracious about the incident but, as quite a few of us afro-rocking Black women have had to be after such a personal space-invading move least, as one Tumblizen remarked, we “get pegged as an Angry Black Woman”…but in that animated GIF, Spalding looked like she made a split-second decision not to cut Bieber.”

• “I Know You’re Smarter Than Me” 2: Backlash, Feminist Ideology, and Flexibility

– “For me, the moral of the story is this: At first women had to work hard to get PMS recognized because our attempts to talk about genuine physical and hormonal reactions to menstruation were dismissed as women being moody, hysterical and useless. Now that PMS is recognized as real and not a mere figment of our girl brains, it’s being used to dismiss women as moody, hysterical and useless. I begin to see a trend ….”

• Journalists don’t get multiculturalism

– “When reporting crime, we include info – right near the top of the story which makes it Really Important – about the offender’s religion and skin colour if they are Muslim and/or not white. When’s the last time you saw a news report of a rape that mentioned the alleged rapist was Christian, or a white Australian? In fact, when’s the last time you saw someone who was not white and/or Muslim being interviewed about anything other than being not white and/or Muslim?”

• This is what this feminist looks like

– ‘Sometimes I just want to have a fucking glass of cider with some friends, and talk shit about baking and weddings, and it’s really fucking awesome to be able to do that in a group where I am guaranteed not to encounter casual racism or homophobia or transphobia or classism or any other gratuitous exercise of privilege. “

• The anti-choice position is not a respect for life.

– “This framing allows the use of the term ‘pro-life’ without irony, as when vagina- and uterus-having people are not considered fully human it is easy not to be ‘pro’ their lives.

The idea that within this unequal power dynamic it is possible to have a good faith anti-choice/pro-choice discussion on a level playing field is thus ludicrous in the extreme. More than that, it is deeply offensive.”

• Who was Maud Blacklidge?

– “Not all feminists in the first half of the twentieth century were trailblazing doctors, lawyers or professors, some, like my grandmother, were women struggling to survive. Being a suffragette was not what made Maud a feminist, although the qualities that motivated her to protest were the same qualities that made her rebel against her family, then become determinedly independent and resilient in hard times.”

• How the AP Deals With Women

– “The sentiment is noble: I completely support it and am glad that the AP is making such a concerted effort to include women’s history in the curriculum. However, I find it patronizing and a little bit sexist that they completely separate women’s history from the “mainstream” history.”

• I need Title X funding. You need it. Texan women need it. [ALERT FOR SEVERE ARSEHOLERY IN COMMENTS]

– “On Tuesday, I lost my job. My insurance will run out on March 1. I am on the pill. I also was treated in November for severe cervical dysplasia, which means I am at high risk for cervical cancer. If I cannot find another job with group health insurance, Planned Parenthood will be my first destination for cancer screenings and birth control pills.

As of March 1st, I will be one of the estimated 35% of Texas women who are uninsured. If I buy an individual health plan, which will cost me around $150 a month, my pre-existing cervical condition will not be covered by insurance. I need Title X funding to stay healthy. There are hundreds of thousands of women like me in Texas alone. Please ask your representative to vote no to cutting Title X.”

• I knew they were going to make it about Lara Logan’s looks

– “The narrative in such cases also conveniently obscures just how pervasive sexual assault truly is, how it’s just about everyone’s damn problem, and, in this case, how Logan was probably not the only one who was attacked.”

• Language Matters: No, ‘Gypped’ Is Not A Good Alternative To ‘Jewed’

– “Curiously, many people are very, very resistant to being told that this word is an ethnic slur and that it should be avoided except in settings where it has been made explicitly clear that it is ok to use; I think you can thank romanticised stereotypes about ‘gypsies’ for this, with people not seeing how it could possibly be a slur since they have visions mediated by pop culture, not reality. And, of course, people tend to like to cling to slurs and slang terms when politely asked by members of those groups to please stop.”

• Now You Discovered You Need Black Transpeople, You're Calling Us

– “I have warned you swimming in vanilla privilege TBLG peeps running ostensibly inclusive orgs to include us in the paid decision making ranks of this community or suffer the consequences.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost.”

• After The Egyptian Revolution: Where Are The Women?

– “I wrote an earlier post about the way revolutions tend to leave women behind after a while, and I am concerned that this is happening in Egypt. Women did participate in the protests, often at a high level of risk. But now:

The lack of women on a committee charged with amending Egypt’s co
nstitution for elections post-Mubarak casts doubt over whether the country can develop into a true democracy, a group of activists said on Wednesday.
The group of over 60 non-governmental organisation and activists said the committee, which is presided over by a respected retired judge known for his independence, had begun work on Wednesday by “marginalising female legal experts.””

• Which Victims Matter

– “If we are to have any success in dismantling the rape culture, we cannot sustain a hierarchy of victims. We cannot rally around one victim because she is assaulted in a country on which the media is already focused, and ignore mass rape in a place the majority of the media diligently ignores. And we cannot justify inattention by saying the problem is too big.

The ubiquity of rape demands more of our time and effort, not less.

The rape culture depends on apathy. People at risk for sexual violence depend on vigilant concern. Which is it going to be…?”

• Factchecking a list of "Hateful Quotes From Feminists"

– [ALERT: DIPSHIT COMMENTORS AHOY]
To the bookmark folder!

Categories: linkfest

Tags: Read-ems