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.

• Good Morning! Here Is an Adorable Picture of James Franco Taking a Nap with Two Kittens!

– because James Franco

• Today in Rape Culture

– “First, I don’t give a damn how the victim was dressed. Lots of people wear lots of clothes for lots of reasons. Just because someone is wearing heels and makeup and a tube top (or whatever), does not automatically mean that ze is looking to get laid. Example: I am wearing heels and no bra (alas, no tube top today) as I write this, and yet I’m mostly looking to finish this post and then to grade some papers– teh sexy, it is very much not.

Second, I don’t give a damn if the victim was looking to get laid. As Liss pointed out [TW] several years ago, it is possible for a person to send a signal that ze’s looking for sex, while simultaneously maintaining hir autonomy in the matter of if, when, how, and with whom such sex may take place.”

• We’re doin’ it wrong

– “So instead of doing something useful with half a page of prime real estate, in a feature leading up to International Women’s Day, the (sydney) magazine tries to get women attacking women. ”

• Challenge for Elizabeth Farrelly: shut the fuck up

– “So from women are about to take over, to men need affirmative action, to ‘What do women want’ (failing to see the links), to ‘Do feminists want to feminise men?’.

Well stop just a minute: this only works if being ‘left behind’, having lesser job opportunities is something that belongs to women, is a feminising thing, is linked to femininity. The market always told me it was supply and demand, efficiency, the best person for the job. And now someone’s telling me that gender does have something to do with it!”

• The BBC enlightens us on passives

– “it will not surprise you to find that he is just as clueless about it as so many critics and usage pundits have been before him. He repeats tired old nonsense, he makes false claims about prominence and agency, and (as Language Log reader Jeremy Wheeler pointed out to me) he cannot tell actives from passives anyway.”

• The Invention of “Adolescence”

– “Before these ideas were invented, children were expected to take on adult roles as soon as they were able, apprenticing their parents and transitioning to adulthood with puberty. Shifts in ideas about life stages is a wonderful example of the social constructedness of age.”

• Big time beast

– “But money isn’t always power. The protesters in Cairo and Madison have taught us this–reminded us of this. They can’t buy a muzzle big enough to silence us all. Share the news. Do not retreat; ReTweet. ”

• Dr. Pepper 10 Is for Men. Only Men! Men Men Men!

– “The problem the company faces is how to market a diet product to men, given the association of dieting with femininity.”

• The church lady says the WI protesters are a Bizarro Tea Party

– “I’m so glad we have Jon Stewart around to reduce all political activities of ordinary people into a clown show. It makes it much easier to maintain our ironic distance. Silly people making noises in public is really beneath all smart liberals like ourselves — the only respectable way for people to engage in politics is to let Jon Stewart explain it all to us in our special coded hipster humor, as he did in the next segment:”

Categories: linkfest

Tags: Read-ems