Weekly Feminist Reader

An 8-year-old Yemeni girl takes her father to court for forcing her to marry a 30-year-old man.
The Guardian publishes an ignorant, hate-filled screed against fat people.
Female leads in blockbuster movies, by the numbers.
Note to Silvio Berlusconi: “Your women are ugly” is not a political argument.
A court dropped charges against an Oklahoma man who took photos up a 16-year-old girl’s skirt while she was shopping at Target, because apparently you can’t be a “peeping Tom” in public.
Philadelphia magazine on 8-year-olds getting waxes. Shudder. (Also file under: Lifestyles of the Children of the Rich and Famous. This is one of those New York Times-style “trends” that only affects the wealthiest 1% of the population, but yeah, has some resonance for the rest of us.)
The case for young women getting better breast cancer screening — not just cervical cancer screening.
An elementary school in Wisconsin has a dress-in-drag day, and conservatives freak out.
A great post over at Bitch Ph.D, “Coming out of the menstruation closet.” And Sara wonders, “Why aren’t [tampons] provided for free in public restrooms, like toilet paper?”
More links after the jump…

On the new STD stats and black youth.
Judd Apatow and Hayden Panettierre collaborate to make a faux-PSA that mocks every woman who’s ever been sexually harassed in the workplace. I know I didn’t laugh.
Mark Rudov on Bill O’Reilly’s show: “[T]here’s no shortage of women who want to put themselves on parade and have men throw money at them. … Girls just love to expose themselves.”
This is incredibly sad and disturbing: An Australian woman’s husband raped her and left her in a burning bedroom, and she told the county court, “I was a real bitch and I know that. It took something as bad as what happened to snap me out of being what I was.”
Dahlia Lithwick reports that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case about whether a person can be executed for rape. (I hope the Court rules against it, and I’d really like to see capital punishment outlawed altogether.)
It’s baaaack! South Dakota anti-choicers are putting an abortion ban on the ballot in November. This time, though, not all of the antis are on board.
GQ laments the fact that “the days of the grateful Russian bride are fading fast.” Barf.
Hugo on how feminist men can resist admission to the “Old Boys’ Club.”
Another abstinence-only-until-hetero-marriage education study confirms what we already knew: It doesn’t work.
On the totally backward Kansas law that lets antichoicers peep abortion providers’ records.
Carmen answers the question, “Why should white people fight racism?”
On the lives of Iraqi women since the “surge.”
A Detroit woman who moved to Africa to raise her grandchildren after her daughter’s death started an organization called 10,000 Girls to help girls teach each other and become entrepreneurs.
Our Bodies, Our Blog has a great interview about the alarmingly high rate of cesarean births among women of size.
A Massachusetts state senator is accused of sexual assault.
Violet Blue on the annual Feminist Porn Awards.
On birth control options for women over age 40.
Actions and Events
Today is the Global Day for Darfur.
Equal Pay Day is coming up! The American Association of University Women is running an “I Am the Face of Equal Pay” campaign. Check it out.
Plus, the National Women’s Law Center is asking you to Blog for Fair Pay on April 18. They also have an action item asking Congress to support the Fair Pay Restoration Act.
A listing of festivals and screenings of The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo.
The U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project is running a Mother’s Day campaign to support working mothers in Colombia.
A cool project, very appropriate this week in light of Saturday’s interview subject: Women Photographers Helping Women Photographers.