2010 February Archive

Apple Censors Sexy Apps

Four days after shocking some users by suddenly removing over 5,000 apps with sexually-explicit content form the App Store, Apple (a) started talking about the decision and (b) created a new category called “explicit” apps. Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of worldwide product marketing, told the New York Times:

It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see.

As the NYT reports, “Many software developers have long complained about Apple’s strict screening process and, at times, seemingly arbitrary decisions about what was acceptable in the App Store.” Tech bloggers have noted that Playboy and ...

By Courtney • 14 years ago

Guest Post: Feminism, Disability, and John Currin

Jennifer Bartlett contributes her second guest post, an interview with artist Sunuara Taylor. Note: All the art works included are by Sunny. Without further adieu:
JB: I’ve been exploring the idea of disability as a strength rather than the societal perception of the disabled body as ‘weak.’ My idea derives from the concept that people with disabilities accomplish many of the same things that nondisabled people do with a so-called “compromised” body. I wonder what you think of this?
ST: Well firstly I’d like to touch on the word disabled. I like the definitions of the words disability and impairment that exist within the Social Model of Disability. Under this model, the word disabled is used to describe the disabling ...

By Courtney • 14 years ago

Quick Hit: Obama’s Healthcare Summit Leads to More Partisan Wrangling

Exhibit A, according to CNN:

12:30 p.m.: Sen. John McCain slams the special deals inserted in the Senate health care bill, saying those should be removed so that the American people will know “that geography does not dictate what kind of health care they will receive.”
Obama shoots back, “Let me just make this point, John, because we’re not campaigning anymore. The election is over.”
McCain interjects, “I’m reminded of that every day.”

You know what we’re reminded of every day McCain? That we no longer have a form of government that actually serves the American people. Rather, we are subjected to politicians obsessed with re-election, special interests, and the media spotlight. I honor what Obama is trying to do, even ...

Exhibit A, according to CNN:

By Courtney • 14 years ago

Not Oprah’s Book Club: Girl Power

I haven’t had a chance to read Marisa Meltzer’s awesome sounding new book, Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music, but you know shit is promising when Viva la Feminista’s six-year-old daughter is trying to catch a sneak peek. She wrote:

What I found most intriguing about the book was how Meltzer outlines how a group of feminists grabbed guitars, drums and the mic and launched a very real music revolution and then how that revolution was so successful that it is quickly evolved into what we typically think of as “Girl Power” music…Girl Power also made me stop and consider how do we want girls to discover feminism. Or more to the point, how do we think we ...

By Courtney • 14 years ago

Thank You Thursdays: Groundbreaking Legislation on Rape Kit Testing Proposed in Illinois

We’ve covered the tragedy of untested rape kits at some length. Well, Human Rights Watch investigator Sarah Tofte, who spearheaded the initial work in LA, is currently leading comprehensive research in Illinois. Good news: she may not have to deal with the same disappointing reaction from the police department.

Chicago Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced new legislation introduced on February 9th, sponsored by Sen. Toi Hutchinson (D-40th) and Rep. Emily McCasey (D-85th), that would require all evidence of sexual assault to be submitted by the investigating law enforcement agency within 10 days of receiving it from the hospital. If the bill is passed, it also would require all law enforcement agencies to provide Illinois State ...

By Jessica • 14 years ago

Lady Gaga sports a strap-on

Lady Gaga says of her strap-on attire on the cover of UK’s Q magazine: “We all know that one of the biggest talking points of the year was that I have a dick, so why not give them what they want?”
Even better: “When a guy says, ‘Oh I fucked all these chicks this week,’ there’s a high-five and giggling. But when a woman does it and its publicised or she’s open about her sexuality or she’s free or liberated, it’s, ‘Oh, she must have a dick.'”
Via Jezebel.

Lady Gaga says of her strap-on attire on the cover of UK’s Q magazine: “We all know that one of the biggest talking points of the year was that I have a dick, so why ...

By Courtney • 14 years ago

New Research Shows that Women are Disproportionately Vulnerable to Eviction

The New York Times reports:

New research is showing that eviction is a particular burden on low-income black women, often single mothers, who have an easier time renting apartments than their male counterparts, but are vulnerable to losing them because their wages or public benefits have not kept up with the cost of housing.

This will come as no surprise to those that have been following the ways in which this economic down turn has exacerbated many of the financial threats facing so many women and people of color, in particular. Just as corrupt mortgage companies have targeted low-income women, well-documented in places like Baltimore, women are now losing their rented housing at higher rates than men.
This new study ...

The New York Times reports:

By Vanessa • 14 years ago

What We Missed

A blogger is YouTubing and live-tweeting her abortion, saying, “I’m doing this to de-mystify abortion.”
Dana Goldstein talks to disability rights leaders about their skepticism towards Sarah Palin’s disability advocacy (or lack thereof).
While the existing state health plan in South Carolina only covers abortion in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman, apparently that wasn’t enough for State Rep. Rex Rice, who introduced legislation that would ban abortion under any circumstance. Nice guy, he is.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has let Congress know of the Navy’s plans to finally allow women aboard submarines.