Weekly Feminist Reader

The Advocate explores what happens when transmen choose to get pregnant. (And please, hold the stupid Junior jokes.)
Apparently anything with a female pronoun attached is subject to hate-filled, sexist rants that purport to be humor. Weird.
How rape and violence against women is downplayed in coverage of Darfur.
Rebecca Walker has a blog!
An awesome primer on Asian and APIA feminists.
Afghan feminists look to the Koran as reinforcement of their beliefs: “Forced marriage, child brides, honor killings – none of this is in the Koran,” Fatima told me, when we met in her office at Kabul’s Red Crescent Society, which she directs. “Women are treated like chattel, and in the name of Islam. This is not sanctioned in the Koran,” she said. […] “If we want to change Islam from within, we have to be totally committed to the religion. That’s the only way to succeed,” said Fatima.
Reminder: Civil unions are not “just as good as” marriage. Scott and Melissa have more.
Kavita Ramdas tells us to look beyond Clinton v. Obama and toward the status of women and people of color in the rest of the world.

A horrific outcome in the Nixmary Brown murder trial. Cara has more.
Muslimah Media Watch on the niqab as shorthand for “exotic other” in advertising.
Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt wrote a letter to the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG), stating that ob/gyns who are not pro-choice should not be obligated to refer patients to abortion providers. (via ThinkProgress)
Why do even magazines that cater to black women lack dark-skinned models and celebrities?
Vanity Fair on the evolution of the female comedian.
Karnythia: “Being a feminist doesn’t make you immune to racism, or classism, or any of the other ‘isms that are so frequently discussed in feminist circles.”
Felicia “Snoop” Pearson, of The Wire fame, has written a memoir. Too bad it won’t get the same kind of attention that a certain faux-“life on the streets” memoir did.
A telling story about how we treat immigrants in this country.
A controversial pre-abortion counseling bill failed in New Hampshire.
Do male and female movie critics see things differently?
On Vogue‘s offensive “King Kong” cover.
A female judge in Texas held a dude in contempt of court for making a “simulated masturbatory gesture with his hand.”
A really fascinating piece over at Grist about how ” women are hurt by a previously unappreciated effect of the infamous “resource curse” that imperils democracy in countries with abundant fossil fuels.”
Italy’s highest court grants women permission to lie if they’re doing so to “protect their honor.” (Hard to count exactly how many ways this is screwed up.)
Slate has a appalling article about the “catastrophe” single women having children — it actually says, “the vast majority of unwed mothers are old enough to know what they’re doing” and goes on to defend the marriage-is-for-procreation viewpoint. Was this ghostwritten by the Family Research Council? (Lauren has a great response.)
Columnist/fabricator Mitch Albom makes an impassioned and truly idiotic case for charging prostitutes and johns equally.
An incredibly sad and disturbing story of a woman in Illinois who was abused and eventually killed by her roommates.
A brilliant, almost parody-like hybrid of drinking-scare and cancer-scare stories about women.
Actions and Events
Hey there male-identified feminists! Sign the men’s pledge to end gender-based violence in Kenya.
The National Women’s History Project sponsors the Women’s Art, Women’s Vision Celebration, March 28-29 in NYC.
Students for Choice at Wayne State University in Detroit are sponsoring a screening of “THE LAST ABORTION CLINIC,” on Thursday, March 27, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., at Bernath Auditorium in WSU’s Undergraduate Library.
Jill Andrew is seeking submissions for the anthology Phat Girls in Search of a Pretty World: Hot Lil’ Fat Chicks Speakin’ Out!, which will “explore plus size women’s private and public journeys with weight. In this original collection, we will express our diverse experiences and memories of how our weight and self/body image have shaped us as women — from childhood to adulthood.” Submissions can be short stories (fiction and nonfiction), monologues, plays, artwork, comic strips, photojournalism, etc. Contact phatgirlseditor [AT] hotmail [DOT] com. More info here.