Iowa Independent: Blogger Kyle Payne sentenced to six months in county jail Payne received 360 days, with 180 days suspended on each of two counts of invasion of privacy, a serious misdemeanor charge. He was also given one year of… Read More ›
violence
MIA: long post in the works
I’ve got a lot of reading and writing to do for a long post coming up, that I will post both here and over at Feminism 101, on Rape Myth Acceptance and negative attitudes towards victims of sexual violence, in… Read More ›
Institutionalised violence against women in China, redux
At the beginning of the Olympics, I posted “Olympics Special: Forced Abortion in China”, intending that it should be the start of a two-week series on institutionalised violence against women and girls in China. That series didn’t eventuate. In my… Read More ›
Girl-Wonder announces the Con Anti-Harassment Project
Remember the Penguicon “Open Source Boob Project” that took place at Penguicon, and the resulting grassroots idea – the “Open Source Women Back Each Other Up Project“? Feminist comics fandom site Girl-Wonder has formalised things a little more, and has… Read More ›
Why I’m Not Pleased, Sexual Objectification Edition
I had “Women should be pleased” [that men sexually objectify them] echoing in my ears when I visited Shakesville the other day. The first thing I saw was this Wrangler jeans ad.
[trigger warning]
UK Criminal Compensation Authority Blaming Rape Victims
Under guidelines meant to minimise compensation payouts for people who “contribute to their own ordeal during a criminal incident”, such as people taking part in the crime, or offering provocation for an attack, certain bureaucrats decided that women being out in the world socialising in a perfectly legal fashion were liable for provoking their own rapes, and cut their compensation payouts accordingly. Public outcry has meant that the decision has been reversed, but how could they have been so wrong headed in the first place?
It could be something to do with the way that the media reports rape, of course. Melissa reports [trigger warnings], and then responds to a typical Daily Mail women-blaming op-ed (the pictorial juxtaposition has to be seen to be believed):
The piece itself is just unrelentingly infuriating, as its male author offers up gems like:
A conflict of interest in Campaign McCain, you say? Quelle surprise!
Most of the world is calling on both Russia and Georgia to show restraint in their current conflict, without attempting to cast one as more of an agressor than the other.
Not Campaign McCain
Olympics Special: Forced Abortion in China
The Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony is about to start.
In all the protests about Tibet and about internet censorship (important issues both), there is an enormous humanitarian crisis in China at risk of getting pushed into the background. That crisis is the systematised, legalised, horrific violence against women and girls.
Through Olympics time, I’m planning to post roundups and linkdumps on a series of these topics. Be warned – they’re all likely to contain triggers.
First up: forced abortion.
Feminism Friday from the Feed-reader
A few must-reads highlighting several very different feminist core issues from the recent posts at Feministe:
Octogalore: Opt Out, Push Out, and Pink Collar Paths
Well, it’s critical for workplaces to become more family friendly. Single parents, poor parents, don’t have the option for one parent not to work. And for women and men to have equal access to unemployment benefits.
But it’s also critical for this “family friendly” path not to
Sexual assault perp Kyle Payne is asking for it – feel free to respond
Kyle Payne, fauxminist, predator, and sexual assaulter, is up for open sentencing on August 11, though he is asking for it to be postponed so that he can continue his “counselling” and solicitation of “letters of support”.
Kyle Payne was a rape crisis advocate, women’s studies student, and resident advisor at his university. While “looking after” an unconscious drunk student in his care, he undid her shirt and took a photograph and video of her breast.
He has now published a statement on his blog, closed comments on it, and emailed a bunch of feminist bloggers to alert them to it. Yeah – he’s soliciting letters of support from feminists, in an effort to influence his sentence. Mm, that’ll go well:
Hoyden About Town 