By Vanessa • 14 years ago

Amazon sells another video game where you “play” sexual abuser

*Possible trigger warning*

While we haven’t been the biggest fans of Amazon as of late and their history of selling a rape simulation game (which they did end up banning), it looks like another game involving violence against women seems to have”slipped” past their radar. “Stockholm: An Exploration of True Love” is a game that allows the user to experience,

“…a terrifyingly vivid exploration of Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological condition in which a captive falls in love with her kidnapper. And you play the part of the kidnapper. With a limited number of options, you must figure out how to make her fall in love with you.”

This includes using poison gas on the victim, sexually assaulting her ...

*Possible trigger warning*

While we haven’t been the biggest fans of Amazon as of late and their history of selling a rape simulation game (which they did end up banning), it looks like

By Vanessa • 14 years ago

“Pregnancy scare” takes on a whole new meaning

This is just…wow.

We’re a wee late to this; the ad was created by a program which is headed by the Leicester City Council in the UK, and was released by the National Health Service of Leicester. And despite YouTube banning it (not sure why it’s up again), NHS Leicester defended the ad, saying that it was merely designed to “shock” and “provoke” younger people.
“We know this film is hard-hitting, but so are the numbers of under-18s getting pregnant in Leicester. The city’s Teenage Pregnancy and Parenthood Partnership has been successful in cutting the numbers of young girls getting pregnant,” said Tim Rideout, chief executive of NHS Leicester City.
Shock? Yes. Provoke? If they mean “provoke” young ...

This is just…wow.

We’re a wee late to this; the ad was created by a program which is headed by the Leicester City Council in the UK, and was released by the National Health Service ...
By Courtney • 14 years ago

Reminder: Scholarship for Omega Conference Due Soon

As we’ve posted previously, there are plenty of generous scholarships available to folks for this fall’s Omega conference: Women & Power: Connecting Across the Generations. But you have apply by June 1 (that’s Monday people)!
The feministing crew will be there, live blogging, interviewing some of the keynote speakers, teaching folks how to blog etc. We’d love to meet you!
*To apply to be part of a cross-generational facilitated dialogue, go here.
And speaking of, Check out Katha Pollit’s recent piece on feminism and generational divides.

As we’ve posted previously, there are plenty of generous scholarships available to folks for this fall’s Omega conference: Women & Power: Connecting Across the Generations. But you have apply by June 1 (that’s Monday people)!
By Courtney • 14 years ago

What We Missed

Here are just a few of the stories we missed over the past few days of hibernating:
New American Media announces national ethnic media awards
Are sexy avatars putting girls at risk?
The Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa is launched
American diplomats with same sex partners will be given benefits
Working Mother’s 2009 Best Companies for Multicultural Women
When our failing immigration system and our failing approach to mental health collide

Here are just a few of the stories we missed over the past few days of hibernating:
New American Media announces national ethnic media awards
Are sexy avatars putting girls at risk?
The Campaign ...
By Courtney • 14 years ago

New Student Group at UChicago: Men in Power

I remember this guy at Columbia College (I went to Barnard) who was sort of known as “too smart for school.” He walked around with his floppy hair and his bemused scowl and started up what began as innocent little conversations about this or that, but quickly turned into all out assaults on the feeble minded person (usually a woman) that he had set his sights on. For a time, I was deeply intimidated by him. Once, I almost cried when we got into a conversation about ethics of one kind or another. Now, when I look back, I realize that he was Bill O’Reilly in a skinny hipster body with post-modern aesthetics. He was a blowhard who got off ...
I remember this guy at Columbia College (I went to Barnard) who was sort of known as “too smart for school.” He walked around with his floppy hair and his bemused scowl and started up what began ...
By Courtney • 14 years ago

Doc Review: A Powerful Noise

A Powerful Noise is a new documentary about three different women activists around the globe: Hanh, an HIV-positive widow in Vietnam, Nada, a survivor of the Bosnian war and a community organizer, and Jacqueline, who works in the slums of Bamako, Mali to educate young women. Here’s the trailer:

It was visually stunning. The shots of all three locations were exquisite, really bringing you into the full sensory experience of these diverse locations. The work these women are doing were also deeply inspiring. These are not superhero stories in the typical conventions of the genre–women who have done more, better, faster than any other activist. Instead, and thankfully, these are stories of fairly ordinary women with tremendous courage. You don’t ...

A Powerful Noise is a new documentary about three different women activists around the globe: Hanh, an HIV-positive widow in Vietnam, Nada, a survivor of the Bosnian war and a community organizer, and Jacqueline, who works ...
By Courtney • 14 years ago

Feministing on Tour!

“Unlike the ‘Hers’ sections of yore–women’s magazines, or even Ms. Magazine–Feministing is not shaped by the fear of being offensive or ‘unrelatable’ for ‘the average female reader’…it is head and shoulders above almost any writing on women’s issues in mainstream media.”

–Columbia Journalism Review

The editors of Feministing will be hitting the road this fall for a five year anniversary tour of college campuses, women’s organizations, and BBQ joints. The keynote panel, guaranteed to feature at least three out of the six award-winning editors, will cover a range of hot topics, followed by a lengthy Q&A.
Questions we’ll be posing to one another and to the audience include:

How is the failing economy changing gender roles? What’s up with the sexual ...

“Unlike the ‘Hers’ sections of yore–women’s magazines, or even Ms. Magazine–Feministing is not shaped by the fear of being offensive or ‘unrelatable’ for ‘the average female reader’…it is head and shoulders above almost any writing on women’s ...
By Jessica • 14 years ago

The sponge is back! Again!

I am a fan of the sponge. But they need to stop teasing, for real.
From The New York Times:

At one time the Today Sponge, a spermicide-coated polyurethane barrier placed in the vagina to inhibit sperm, was the most popular form of over-the-counter birth control for women. Now, a new distributor is introducing it again this weekend, hoping to reclaim that status.
Introduced in 1983, the sponge first disappeared from drugstores in 1994 after some manufacturing problems. It reappeared in 2005 under new ownership, which spent millions to promote the brand before selling it to another company. That new proprietor declared bankruptcy in late 2007, taking the Today Sponge out of production last year.

I remember when the

I am a fan of the sponge. But they need to stop teasing, for real.
From The New York Times:

At one time the Today Sponge, a spermicide-coated polyurethane barrier placed in the vagina to inhibit ...

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